I should probably get this out of the way first since I know Lamb Watch 2026 is of much interest: we still have just four increasingly-uncomfortable ewes, their sides wiggling like jelly as they laboriously trot uphill. I sincerely hope, for their sakes (and for the sake of spring cuteness) that the youngsters emerge soon.

Other signs of our progressing Appalachian spring this week:

• The Pink Moon on April 1st was true to its name: although I haven’t spotted any moss phlox, our woods and fields are full of other pinks and purples: Virginia springbeauty; purple dead nettle; apple, cherry, and peach blossoms; even a few shy bulbs I’d forgotten that I planted. Joining them soon: the dogwoods are beginning to bud, and - if I neglect my pruning - the multiflora rose, that I was so charmed by when we moved out here but quickly learned is a trickster who will gladly take over your garden and fence line, will be not far behind.

• The weather continues to alternate between “perfect San Diego beach temps” and “another round of freeze, haha suckers, you didn’t plant those peas yet did you?” In preparation for this week’s chill, we’ve moved a small heater into the greenhouse - after coddling 104 tomato and pepper seedlings for almost two months, and optimistically setting in some lavender, marigolds, and basil, this is not the week I prefer to start from scratch.

• The Illicit Ramp Guy is back. In my part of the country, one delicious thing to look forward to each spring is the arrival of ramp season. Ramps are a type of wild spring onion found in Appalachian forests, and this time of year they start to appear in butters and salad dressings and pestos and marinades all over. If you don’t have a good ramp-picking spot, you may have to find a guy willing to sell what he forages. Ours parks his truck below the underpass on the way to Walmart and puts out a cardboard sign with “RAMPS” sharpeed on it. The whole thing feels extremely shady, but you do what you must.

In my kitchen, the season’s offerings are still mostly confined to eggs - so many eggs. Thanks to the flock and a fondness for potatoes, we’ve been eating a lot of tortilla española. This week, an abundance of sweet potatoes on the counter (left over from our spoiled dogs’ breakfasts and dinners) and the appearance, not of ramps, but of wild chives in the yard inspired us to mix things up a bit. Below, my version of a sweet potato and wild chive tortilla, with a couple little tricks to make things less fussy. Unfussiness is, in my view, one of the beauties of a tortilla - just a few simple ingredients come together to make something greater than the sum of its parts.

Speaking of fussy - have you ever watched a goose prepare to lay an egg? Our Chinese white, Sasha (appropriately for a flock guardian goose, her name means “protector”), has an entire production. First, she enters the sheep barn, announces her presence, and evicts everyone - including the sheep. Then, she goes to her favorite corner and begins nudging around bits of straw, setting things up just so. Finally, she takes a proud seat, perfect posture, and waits. I’ve begun giving amazed friends the occasional goose eggs, which have unbelievable heft and really feel almost like a unit of currency. It’s funny, one mused, “goose egg” is vernacular for zero, nothing…but if you’ve ever held a goose egg, you know that makes absolutely no sense.

For my tortilla, I used a combination of goose, duck, and chicken eggs - when you have a mixed flock, a kitchen scale becomes very useful in cooking and baking - but you can of course use whatever your flock offers or you find at the store.

Classic tortilla española may or may not include onion. Here, I’m including onion and wild chives and garlic and pepper - partly because I apparently have no respect for tradition, and partly because the sweet potatoes want, in my view, to be offset by a little pungency, a little spice. You are welcome to scale back any of the seasonings to your taste.

Finally - classic tortilla is cooked on one side, then flipped and cooked on the other, and then flipped back onto a plate. This is a lot of high-stakes egg flipping, so I prefer to simply cook on a stovetop to set the bottom and sides, then transfer to an oven for the remainder of the cook. Just one flip, to serve - although if you’re flip-shy you could certainly serve the thing right-side up, right out of the pan.

Subscribe now

Sweet Potato and Wild Chive Tortilla Española (serves 6-8)

Ingredients

• 8 large chicken eggs, or about 16 oz of whatever eggs you have (I used 1 goose, 2 duck, and 2 chicken…)

• 2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled (about three medium sweet potatoes)

• 1 lb yellow or white onions (about three small onions)

• Generous handful of a fresh spring onion - ramps, wild chives, or green onions in a pinch, minced

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1 t salt

• 1/2 t coarsely ground black pepper

• 2 garlic cloves, grated (optional)

Instructions

1. Thinly slice the sweet potatoes. A mandolin can help greatly with this task, but watch those fingertips and knuckles!

2. Peel and thinly slice the onions, about the same size as the sweet potatoes.

3. Steam the sweet potato slices: add a couple inches of water and a steamer basket to a large pot, then the sliced potatoes. Turn the heat on medium-high, cover, and cook until just tender, about 15 minutes.

4. While you’re steaming the potatoes, sauté the onions. Use the full 1/4 cup of oil in a 9-inch cast iron pan (or your preferred nonstick oven-safe pan). Turn the heat to medium and cook the onions until translucent and tender.

5. While the potatoes and onions are cooking, crack the eggs and add 1 t salt, the onions/ramps/wild chives, the pepper, and (if desired) the garlic. Whisk until eggs are light and frothy.

6. Remove the cooked onions from the pan with a slotted spoon, reserving remaining oil and ensuring it thoroughly coats the bottom and sides of the pan.

7. Allow sweet potatoes and onions to cool slightly, then add to the egg mixture and stir to combine with a rubber spatula (you want to leave the sweet potatoes as intact as possible.)

8. Heat the skillet you just used for the onions over medium heat, ensuring the pan is nice and hot. Add the egg/potato/onion mixture, pressing the top with a spatula.

9. Cook until the bottom and sides are set, about 10 minutes. Periodically use your spatula to pull egg away from the sides of the pan - you’ll know you’re ready when the egg comes away cleanly.

10. Transfer to a 350-degree oven and bake until the egg is set through - about 20-25 minutes. Use a toothpick to check that you don’t have a runny-egg-in-center situation.

11. Remove from the oven and find your most reliable heat-proof pair of oven mitts. Invert a plate over the top, pick the whole thing up, say a little prayer, and flip the tortilla onto the plate.

12. Perfect tortilla? Congratulations! Imperfect tortilla? You will probably find that it still tastes great.

13. Enjoy hot with spring greens…or cold the next morning right out of the refrigerator. Just, whatever you do, don’t make eye contact with the goose.

Be well,

Havala

p.s. - Here looking for yoga or health coaching? You can find my current schedule and offerings on my website.

p.p.s. - Contemplating that fall beach retreat? Early interest has been strong - just 10 spots (7 shared/3 private rooms) left! Early-bird rates are available for those who book by May 15th.

Below: a PDF of this recipe for your files. :-)

Sweet Potato Tortilla

108KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

-Eddie Jaku, The Happiest Man on Earth

With the arrival, Sunday, of the first real storm of the season, our little homestead is cold and quiet: deep winter is here. And while we’re spending plenty of time cozy inside, making stews and bread and cookies, watching movies and reading books, enjoying a quality of life unheard of just a few short generations ago, we’re also reckoning with the adequacy, or limitations, of our summer and fall preparations.

In deep winter, with its ice-crusted fields and frostbite-threatening winds, there’s no longer any question of slipping casually outside to do just one more chore. Didn’t buy that snowplow blade? The driveway might just have to remain impassable for a few days. No stock tank heaters? Guess you’ll be acting as bucket brigade all week. Are you sure you bought enough hay? Those sheep are looking pretty hungry and the pasture’s now officially closed for the season.

Here’s where our preparations have led us:

The driveway was, yesterday morning, covered in about six inches of snow. Around noon, our household alert system, Stella, notified us of a nearby intruder. It was our neighbor - plowing our driveway free of charge and without being asked. His son was next door digging another neighbor out. We made partial payment by way of some just-out-of-the-oven cheddar and onion morning buns and many thanks. We lucked into having a good neighbor, but are doing our best to deserve it and keep up our end of the bargain.

In the pasture, the rival duck and geese factions have mostly declared a temporary truce and are spending their days hunkered down in their respective zones, making dissatisfied noises at the weather and very occasionally making a sprint for food and water. We did, mercifully, get those tank heaters in before the heavy weather.

The hens haven’t left their brand-new coop - the replacement for the one the wind blew down a couple weeks ago - and are, more or less calmly, simply eating, drinking, and laying eggs, weather outside be clucked.

The sheep are also mostly staying out of the weather - no forage outside - warm, fed, and comfortable, but still issuing the occasional discontented baaa and making a circuit around the skating rink of a pasture to see if there’s been a miraculous thaw they’ve missed.

The dogs would like us to fix the weather, please, but will accept belly rubs as a substitute.

The bees, whose hives are wrapped in wool, haven’t ventured forth to offer their opinion.

The garden goldfish aren’t faring quite as well, this being my first, error-ridden year of outdoor fish-keeping, I significantly underestimated the importance of a filtration system, particularly in cold weather, and oxygen levels in the stock tank have dipped dangerously low, a situation I occasionally try to remedy, imperfectly, by removing a little murky water and replacing it with fresh. Three of four remain; the fourth is interred in next year’s tomato plot.

Our silly little rooster managed to injure his leg just before the mercury dropped. We waited a day to see if he’d rally before realizing that our only two choices were to bring him inside, or allow “nature” to take its course (always a questionable choice with farm animals, who aren’t exactly self-sufficient in the best of times.) Reuben now has a temporary apartment in the garage, where he’s enjoying warmth, a little gentle chicken PT, and scrambled eggs for breakfast. He’s gained energy, but whether he’s in hospice, or is now a permanent house-chicken, remains to be seen. It doesn’t matter - the point is that, at least for us, you do everything you can to prevent a creature from dying alone and in the cold.

A few weeks ago, someone shared a video with me that’s been making the rounds on social media, suggesting that thinking about a particular ancestor can actually trigger changes in our genetic expression. Now, I’m not a genetic scientist and don’t have the training to assess this particular claim. It’s caused me to pause and reflect, however, on all the many ways what we choose to train our attention on influences the reality we live in.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my grandmother lately.

Grandma Marge was born in 1913. As part of the “Greatest Generation”, grandma’s early childhood coincided with World War 1. She was a young adult and attended nursing school during the Great Depression, married my brilliant-but-difficult immigrant grandfather a year before World War II erupted, raised five children and lost a sixth in infancy, saw her husband deployed to Europe. And yet none of this is what was most remarkable about Grandma.

Grandma, as I knew her until her passing in 2005 at the age of 92, was one of those impossibly sweet women who, in my teenage and early adult years it was easy to write off as naive. She mostly took out her bigger feelings on the baby grand piano in her living room; her candy dish was always full and a pound cake always, somehow, on the kitchen table. At Christmas, the gift box would nearly always contain a crocheted blanket, labor-intensive, colorful, and warm. Although her children might have a different perspective, I can’t remember a single harsh word or negative opinion ever coming out of her mouth.

Now that I’m older and have lived through a few dark, chaotic news cycles myself, my perspective on Grandma is a little different: less wow, you sure were naive and more how on earth did you have the fortitude to keep all that up? In times of constant and world-altering upheaval, Grandma persistently, stubbornly, and without hesitation or exception offered warmth, comfort, and kindness. How many of us could manage this? It’s hard work. Necessary work. I think she knew that each of us is only the sum of all the little actions we take each day - and that society is only the sum of all of us. Whether brighter days or darkness are in the weather forecast, you bake the cake; you comfort the ailing animal; you do everything you possibly can to make the world just a tiny bit sweeter and more compassionate.

Share

“Every act of love brings happiness; there is no act of love which does not bring peace and blessedness as its reaction.”
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma Yoga: The Yoga of Action

I don’t have any particularly profound act of sweetness to offer you today, except by way of one thing that I do reflexively during difficult times: baking.

There’s a Joy the Baker Brown Butter Chocolate Chip cookie recipe that I used to make so often that one friend just started calling them “Havala cookies.” That never seemed quite fair, but in the way these things go - the version I now make is different (dare I say better? - , I adore your recipes, please don’t come for me!):

• I no longer keep brown sugar in my kitchen, preferring instead to use white sugar and molasses and adjust the ratios more precisely. These cookies are significantly more molasses-forward than the originals.

• While Joy suggests browning half the butter, I find that browning all of it not only results in a nuttier, more complex flavor, but also gives you a fudgier, gooier center – a good thing! The best balance, in my book: cool the browned butter until semi-solid and then cream it with the sugar, just as you would a stick of butter. It will be a little less fluffy, but no less delicious.

• I’ve reduced the sugar substantially and added some nonfat dry milk powder. The resulting cookies are still plenty sweet, but the nuttiness of the butter and einkorn really shine through.

• My preference and recommendation is to substitute einkorn flour for all-purpose if you can find it: it has a complexity that pairs beautifully with the chocolate, butter, and salt. If you can’t find einkorn, you can try whole-wheat flour, or simply substitute all-purpose.

You’ll want to use the best-quality butter, vanilla, and chocolate that you possibly can; it really makes a difference.

Finally it probably goes without saying, but I’m not classifying these as “health food.” Even the reduction in sugar was made for flavor reasons, not ones of virtue. If I didn’t make my position clear in the epistle above, let me restate it here: everyone needs a little sweetness, particularly in difficult times.

Subscribe now

Just-Sweet-Enough Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter (226 grams)

3/4 c granulated sugar (149 grams)

2 T molasses (42 grams)

1/2 c nonfat dry milk powder (56 grams)

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 t vanilla

2 cups einkorn, whole wheat, or all-purpose flour (240 grams)

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1 1/2 c chocolate chips (255 grams)

Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

1. Brown the butter: place in a pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring periodically, until the butter smells nutty and turns a rich brown. Remove from heat and immediately decant into a heat-safe bowl. Set aside to cool in the refrigerator until semi-solid, about half an hour.

2. Beat the cooled butter, sugar, and molasses until light and creamy.

3. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla; continue to stir vigorously until glossy and emulsified.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and milk powder.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir to combine.

6. Add the chocolate chips and mix.

7. Immediately scoop dough (which will be a little bit sticky) into 2-oz balls (or whatever size you prefer) on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for at least two hours, or overnight.

8. Bake or freeze for later:

   1. To bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the chilled dough balls about 2” apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes, until golden brown but still slightly soft (don’t over-bake - you want that chewy center!)

   2. To freeze, simply scoop your firm, refrigerated dough balls into a freezer bag, removing as much air as possible. When ready to bake, remove as many dough balls as you want and proceed as in 8a, adding a few minutes to your baking time. This is a great party trick - fresh cookies on demand!

9. Remove from oven and top with a little flaky sea salt. Allow to cool on the baking sheet.

10. Find a friend, and sit down to a warm cookie and your favorite beverage. Reflect on the small bits of sweetness in your lives.

    ---

    Below: recipe PDF

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

500KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

USDA, I find your lack of beans disturbing.

Sure, there’s a little bowl of what I’m told is rice with beans in the lower left, just before the “you’re not cute enough for this club” line under which the whole grains are segregated. But you’d be forgiven for missing it and instead taking home the message that you’d be better off eating a block of Swiss cheese. And although I’d be the last person to pretend cheese isn’t delicious - and even good for you! - the mountain of evidence1 in favor of legumes amounts to - if you’ll forgive me - more than a hill of beans.

When the guidelines came out, I joked to a friend that I might just make 2026 the Year of the Bean for recipe development purposes. And while I’m not committing to that bit just yet (no promises), I thought the timing presented a golden opportunity to make good use of the last of a bag of adzuki beans that’s been hiding in my pantry for at least five years (another great things about beans - they’re practically apocalypse-proof! If that happens to be something on your mind these days.)

Below, a simple winter curry with squash, coconut milk, and peppers. A few notes:

• I’m recommending delicata squash since you can just cut the whole thing up, skin and all - but use whatever you like! I actually used a long-in-the-tooth acorn squash that had been hanging out on my counter (the peel was a little chewy, but hey: fiber!) - but kabocha or butternut would be nice here too.

• I used red bell peppers to contrast with my green jalapeño - when I’m cooking with both sweet and hot peppers, I do like a little visual differentiation to avoid unpleasant surprises. That’s just my preference though - use any peppers you like!

• I recommend serving this with brown rice and some type of green vegetable - here, I’ve got just a little Napa cabbage with rice vinegar and salt. If you’re a cilantro person, that would also be good. Do whatever you like - although I always strongly recommend playing the “how many colors can I get on this plate?” game - especially during a winter that, for many reasons, feels particularly

  grey.

Adzuki Bean Curry with Winter Squash (about 6 servings)

1 1/2 cups dry adzuki beans

1 delicata squash (or other 2-3 pound winter squash of choice), seeded and cubed*

2 bell peppers, any color, sliced into thin strips

1-2 hot peppers of choice (I used 1 jalapeño), diced

1 can full-fat coconut milk

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 T grated fresh ginger

1 T cumin seeds

1 T ground coriander

1-2 t chili flakes (I like gochugaru)

2 t turmeric powder

1/2 t amchur (optional)

2 T neutral oil (such as avocado)

2 T lime juice

Salt to taste (about 1/2-1 t)

Directions

1. The night before cooking, soak the adzuki beans (at least 8 hours)

2. Drain and rinse the soaked beans. Add to a pot with fresh water to cover by about 1 inch; simmer until soft, about an hour.

3. Heat the oil in pot. Add the ginger and garlic; stir until fragrant (don’t burn the garlic!) Add the coriander and cumin and continue to stir. Add the hot peppers and stir a bit more.

4. Add the coconut milk, pepper flakes, turmeric, and cubed squash. Simmer until squash is fork tender, about half an hour.

5. About 20 minutes into cooking time, add the bell peppers and cooked beans.

6. Add amchur (if using), lime juice, and salt to taste.

7. Turn off your phone; turn on some music; enjoy slowly with rice, your choice of green vegetable, and good company.

   Subscribe now

Adzuki And Squash Curry

109KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Despite these cheerful little flourishes, the general mood is definitely less exuberant, echoing the landscape outside. And even if my taste buds - or are those the whispers of my Eastern European ancestors? - insist that four months of fortification with bread and cheese is the right move as I hunker down for cold weather, the rest of my body is asking for a little more green, please.

Enter this soup: almost zero effort, absolute Hulk shades of green, and loaded up with more than your RDA of vitamin A and 20(!) grams of fiber per serving. Split peas, a whole lot of kale, and immodest quantities of celery go into the pot along with some herbs and broth and emerge as the humble winter dinner hero you didn’t know you needed.

I began this month (just ten days ago!) thinking that I may offer a big, festive recipe here. But honestly? During the holidays, with their cookies and cheese balls and turduckens, it can be lovely to have a few no-fuss, comforting, soothing, and nutritious recipes in the back pocket. In the spirit of yin season, this soup is a little invitation to go gently on both the kitchen labors and on the digestive system.

And maybe, while you gaze into your green, green bowl, to daydream about spring salads.

Pea Soup with Greens (serves 6)

2 cups dried split peas

6 cups broth or stock of choice (I used water + 2 T Better Than Bouillon concentrate)

2 bunches kale (or other dark leafy green of choice)

8 celery ribs (about half of one stalk)

1/2 t fenugreek powder

1 t curry powder

3 whole cloves garlic

1/2 cup grapeseed oil

4-5 scallions

1/4 t chili flakes

Fresh herbs to garnish - parsley, mint, and/or anything else you prefer

Salt to taste

Directions

1. Wash kale and celery thoroughly; chop into small pieces (you can include the kale stems and the celery leaves!)

2. Add the split peas, broth, kale, celery, 2 of the garlic cloves (whole is fine - they’ll break down!), fenugreek, curry, and garlic in an Instant Pot. Set to pressure cook on “high” for 20 minutes.

   1. Note: you can also do this the longer way on the stovetop, about 45 minutes to an hour, stirring frequently to ensure the bottom doesn’t burn.

3. While the soup is cooking, prepare the scallion oil: slice the scallions and add to a small pot with grapeseed oil, chili flake, and the other garlic clove (smashed). Allow to simmer for about 30 minutes, until the scallions begin to brown, and then strain the oil.

4. After the pressure has naturally released, open the pot and give everything a good stir. Your soup should be very green; the vegetables and split peas will have broken down slightly.

5. Serve with your choice of toppings. Recommended: a dollop of Greek yogurt; scallion oil (you won’t use all of it - save the rest for another occasion); fresh herbs. Get as much green in there as you can!

Nutrition information (without scallion oil or other condiments. Estimated - this information is not FDA-evaluated. Actual nutritional content can differ based on ingredient brands, specific quantities used, and preparation methods.

188 calories; 47 g carbohydrates; 0 g fat; 20 g fiber; 15 g protein.

Very Green Pea Soup

117KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Where viral recipes are concerned, I am chronically behind the times. By choice and preference, I don’t have the app where most of them are found, so for a bit I’d wait for them to trickle down to other apps. These days, though, I’m less present even there, so my introduction to the next hot new dish tends to wait until one of my preferred recipe bloggers makes it, or the New York Times food section decides to try being cheeky and contemporary.

This probably comes as no surprise to anyone who knows me. I’m also a late-and-reluctant adopter of technology, treating each new iPhone release and tracking gadget with the skepticism of a but wait, there’s more! late night network TV ad. I shop for phones, cameras, and audio equipment among my husband’s hand-me-downs - a technology enthusiast, I can depend on him for pretty recent and thoroughly-tested tech, all without needing to make a trip to Best Buy (my idea of actual purgatory on earth.)

On to the pasta. I finally peeked in the door of the almost-vacant “cheat yalancı mantı” party a couple of weeks ago while cooking dinner with a friend. It was one of those evenings where no-one wants to run to the store, so you just open cupboards and forgotten refrigerator drawers until inspiration strikes. Ground turkey…the remnants of a tub of yogurt…some forlorn-looking tomatoes…just a tiny bit of butter. Even with these slightly sad scavenged ingredients, the dish fully lived up to the hype.

At home, I like to cram all the veggies into everything I can, so my version below, which riffs on one over at Ambitious Kitchen is vegetarian-ized. I use tofu to add a little protein and mushrooms for their earthiness and umami and bump up the spices significantly from the version I found online (tofu can disappear a lot of seasoning.) Other notes:

• Don’t skip the freeze-and-thaw step for the tofu: doing this makes it significantly chewier and is helpful in wringing out lots of water without making things mushy.

• Don’t skip the oil - you’ll need it to prevent your mushrooms and tofu from sticking to the pan.

• I recommend using well-seasoned carbon steel or cast iron if you can, avoiding nonstick: your mixture should be allowed to adhere slightly to your cooking surface before stirring and scraping, preferably with a metal implement so you can pick up all the crispy bits.

• You’ll want to cook the mushrooms and tofu longer than you think. The volume will reduce by 1/2 to 2/3 and most of the water will cook off, leaving crumbles similar to the texture of ground meat.

• I use pomegranate seeds instead of tomatoes for one simple reason: tomato season is over, and pomegranate season is here. The tomatoes I can find in the grocery store right now are mushy, anemic, and flavorless. The only thing worse than no tomatoes is mushy tomatoes.

• Fresh herbs are non-optional!

I also strongly encourage you to to a little refrigerator rummaging of your own. Half a can of chickpeas? Throw it in there. I suspect this would also be tasty with a few sliced green olives, some additional herbs, or a little feta. There is great, meal-enhancing satisfaction to finding the last two tablespoons of something from the back shelf and turning it into a magical little flourish.

Vegetarian “cheat” yalancı mantı with mushrooms and tofu (serves 4)

8 oz dried bow-tie pasta (or any pasta you prefer)

For the tofu/mushroom “meat”:

1 12-oz block extra-firm tofu, frozen and thawed

8 oz cremini mushrooms

1/2 of a yellow onion, minced

2 T neutral oil, such as grapeseed

1 t kosher salt

2 t smoked paprika

1 1/2 t garlic powder

1 1/2 t onion powder

2 t mild curry powder

1/2 t black pepper

For the yogurt sauce:

1 1/2 c full-fat or 2% greek yogurt

2 cloves garlic, grated

1 T fresh mint, minced

1/4 t kosher salt

For the paprika butter:

4 T salted butter (or unsalted butter + a pinch of salt)

1/2 t sweet paprika

To serve:

4 T flat-leaf parsley, chopped

1/2 c pomegranate seeds (or any other cheerful garnish you prefer)

Directions:

1. Prepare the thawed tofu: crumble and place in a clean, dry kitchen towel. Squeeze as much water out as you possibly can.

2. Clean the mushrooms and blitz in a food processor until they form small crumbles. Add to the dried, crumbled tofu and add salt, paprika, curry powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper. Mix well.

3. Heat the 2 T oil in a pan until shimmering. Add the minced onion and tofu/mushroom/spice mix.

4. Cook for about 30 minutes, or until the volume has significantly reduced, the mushrooms are cooked, and the texture is slightly dry and crispy. This may take longer than you think - be patient and use a metal spatula to scrape the pan periodically. Don’t be tempted to remove from the heat early or it will be mushy (if it’s still mushy, keep cooking!)

5. While the mixture is cooking, prepare the pasta according to package directions.

6. Prepare the yogurt sauce: add the grated garlic, salt, and mint to the yogurt and stir.

7. Prepare the butter sauce: melt the butter and stir together with the paprika.

8. Assemble: begin with a layer of cooked pasta; add 1/4 of the yogurt mixture, then 1/4 of the tofu/mushroom mixture, then drizzle with paprika butter. Sprinkle with parsley and pomegranate seeds.

9. Turn off all short-form video content and enjoy.

Cheat Yalanci Manti

22.3MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

As so often happens, I’m addressing three cravings in one recipe: classic matzoh ball soup, beefy, cheesy French onion soup, and even simpler braised onions. Kind of like what I imagine might have happened if Julia Childs had shown up to one of my campus Hillel’s Shabbat dinners.

We’re paring things back to basics here: the weather has all of my nesting, put-on-an-extra-layer instincts kicking in, and while under normal (or maybe just warmer) circumstances you’re likely to find me throwing a handful of greens into almost everything, for today’s recipe I’m suggesting we keep things warm, savory, buttery, and cheesy. You can always make a salad to serve on the side. Actually, Julia probably would have done that - something with a nice, classic vinaigrette.

A final note that the matzoh balls need a bit more cooking liquid than you may want in your final preparation. They do need the full four cups, but cooks’ choice after they’re finished: you are welcome to make the whole thing into something more like a soup, or use the leftover broth for whatever you’d like (including a nice little warm-up after hauling those water buckets.)

French-Onion-Soup Style Braised Onions with Matzoh Balls (Serves 4)

Ingredients

2 pounds yellow onions (about 5 medium)

4 T butter

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

6 cups vegetable stock (or 6 cups water + 2 T Better than Bouillon or similar concentrate)

1/2 cup matzoh meal

2 large eggs

2 T vegetable oil

1/2 t baking powder

2 T water

3 oz Swiss or Gruyere cheese, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Mix matzo meal, eggs, vegetable oil, baking powder, and 2 T water (gently - avoid overworking.) Cover and refrigerate for half an hour.

2. Peel your onions and cut in half, and then into quarters. We’re aiming for orange-section shaped pieces, hearty and substantial.

3. Add to a 3-quart oven-safe pan with 4 T melted butter and the salt and pepper. Mix well to coat the onions. Add 2 cups of the stock.

4. Cover pan and bake for 45 minutes at 325 degrees F, or until the onions are tender.

5. While the onions are in the oven, bring remaining 4 cups broth to a simmer. Remove matzoh ball mix from the refrigerator and shape into eight walnut-sized balls. Drop the matzoh balls into the broth and cook, covered, until they float and are light and fluffy, at least 30 minutes (may take longer - don’t pull them out early!)

6. While the matzoh balls are cooking, remove the lid from the onions, increase oven heat to 375 degrees F, and continue to bake until liquid has cooked off.

7. Assemble: deglaze the pan with a little (or a lot) of the matzoh ball broth - your choice whether this is more of a hearty vegetable dish or a soup. Add the matzoh balls, top them with cheese, and set under a high broiler for about five minutes - until the cheese is melted and slightly browned.

8. Enjoy while tuned in to the local weather station with a side of gratitude for sweaters, insulation, and indoor plumbing.

Nutrition information (approximate): 449 calories, 28.5 g fat, 36.4 g carbohydrates, 14.4 g protein, 4.4 g fiber

French Onion Soup Style Braised Onions with Matzoh Balls

1.03MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

I’m taking it as a sign that not one, but two of my culinary heroes (Yotam Ottolenghi and Samin Nosrat) have shared recipes for ash e reshteh, an Iranian noodle, herb and bean stew, in the last couple of weeks. Ottolenghi’s version, which keeps the noodles to the side and includes a fragrant mint oil, is both familiar and tantalizingly new to my (admittedly American) palate. Nosrat steers things in a more traditional direction, calling for both kashk (Persian yogurt) and reshteh (Persian soup noodles.)

Over here at Spotted Dog Farm, the cooler weather has me in mind of savory, hearty flavors. I’d been mulling a smoky mushroom stew; I also had a bag of beautiful black chickpeas in my cupboard calling my name and a pot of rosemary in the greenhouse, vivid and fragrant.

What ultimately came together for dinner can claim culinary roots in at least three places: any number of Eastern European dishes that bring buckwheat, mushrooms, and paprika together; that Iranian soup that seems to be in the zeitgeist; and more Japanese-style soups with soba noodles.

In keeping with this week’s solar plexus theme (will + identity), I encourage you, too, to mix and match flavors, throwing the culinary rule book out the window to create what you enjoy.

Mushroom Soba Stew with Chickpeas and Spinach (Serves 6)

Ingredients:

2 pounds cremini mushrooms (or your favorite mushroom)

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

2 T olive oil

3 cups fresh or frozen spinach

6 cups water (plus more to boil the noodles)

3 bundles (600g, or 6 servings) buckwheat soba noodles

3 cups cooked chickpeas (canned, or cooked from 1 c dried)

1 sprig fresh rosemary, or 1/2 t dried

1 t smoked paprika

1 bay leaf

2 T fresh or 2 t dried parsley

.5 - 1 t black pepper

2 T cornstarch (optional)

Directions:

1. Clean and slice the mushrooms. If they’re especially dirty, it is absolutely okay to give them a quick rinse - just don’t soak them.

2. Peel and thinly slice the onions.

3. Add 2 T oil to a heavy pot and add the mushrooms and onions. You’re going to want to cook these until most of the liquid has left the mushrooms - and then a little longer (you really can’t overcook mushrooms), stirring frequently. When everything seems done, add the minced garlic and stir for another few minutes.

4. Add the water, vegetable base, chickpeas, paprika, parsley, bay leaf, rosemary (you can put the whole sprig in there - just remember to fish it out later!) and half teaspoon of pepper. Bring to a simmer for about half an hour.

5. While the soup is cooking, bring a separate pot of water to boil and cook the soba noodles according to package directions. (I always like to cook noodles separately for noodle soups - they can get pretty mushy.) After cooking, drain and rinse in cold water.

6. If you desire a more stew-like soup, make a slurry of the cornstarch and 2 T water. Stir into the soup and cook for a few minutes more, until slightly thickened.

7. Taste the soup and add salt and pepper to taste. I like more pepper in winter for its warming qualities, but let your taste buds and stomach be your guide.

8. To serve, add one serving of soba noodles to a bowl and top with about 1.5 cups soup. Garnish as desired - I like a little yogurt or sour cream.

9. Enjoy while imagining your favorite international winter escape.

Soba, Chickpea, And Mushroom Stew

837KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

A good friend had invited us over for the holidays, along with a few other stragglers and her parents. Her dad - let’s call him “Derek”, arrived on time with a single twice-baked potato wrapped carefully in foil. He placed it on the loaded communal holiday table, right next to the deviled eggs, and looked warily around.

My husband nudged our host. “Hey,” he asked, “What did Derek bring?”

“Oh,” our friend replied. “That’s…um…that’s Derek’s twice-baked potato. Please don’t eat it.”

“Does your dad…have some special dietary restrictions?”

“No.”

Derek appeared to be too busy guarding his potato to wonder what we were talking about.

When dinner time arrived, everyone served themselves, buffet-style, taking great pains to avoid the special spud. Derek, finally, added it to his plate, and when we all sat down ate it with apparent enjoyment alongside his turkey and cranberry sauce and green bean casserole.

I don’t know what was in that potato, but it must have been pretty good. Either that, or Derek was running some sort of decades-long joke or social experiment no-one else was privy to.

In the spirit of Derek’s Special Potato, I offer the recipe below as a weeknight-dinner-for-one option. It combines a few of my fall favorites (yes, I gave you a butternut squash recipe just last week…no, it’s probably not the last one.) All in it probably takes about an hour and a half, with about ten minutes of hands-on time. This is a pretty substantial and hearty recipe - a whole potato is a whole meal, or have half of one as a civilized side.

Of course, the take-home lesson here is not that hoarding your potato like a wary Smaug is the right move, especially during the season’s festive days. In fact, I humbly suggest that you might even enjoy it more if you scale it up to 2, 4, or more servings and enjoy it with, not just among, friends.

Curried Butternut Squash Twice-Baked Potato with Crispy Chickpeas (makes 1, but you are allowed to scale up and share!)

For the potato:

1 large russet potato

1/2 cup peeled and cubed butternut squash

1 t extra virgin olive oil

1 T nutritional yeast

1/4 c full-fat greek yogurt

1/2 T coconut oil

1/4 t salt

1/2 t curry powder (your favorite kind - any is ok!)

1/2 t ground cumin

1/2 t garlic powder

For the chickpeas - enough for 4 potatoes, or to keep a little extra on hand as a snack:

1 can or 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas

2 T olive oil

1/2 t salt

1/2 t smoked paprika

1/2 t garlic powder

Optional garnishes: more greek yogurt, chili crisp, chopped herbs, cheese…

1. Scrub the baked potato. Dry and rub with 1 t olive oil, wrap in foil, and bake at 375 for about an hour, until fork tender.

2. While the potato is baking, cook the squash. Easiest: put it in an oven-safe covered container and bake alongside the potato (the butternut squash will be done a little more quickly, so keep an eye on it.) You could also use leftover or frozen squash, or steam/microwave it.

3. Prepare the crispy chickpeas: Rinse and drain the chickpeas, then use a towel to dry. Toss in oil, salt, smoked paprika, and garlic powder, and then transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet in your oven (same one you’re using to roast the potato.) These should be done in 30-45 minutes - you want the outsides crispy and the insides creamy.

4. When your potato is baked, remove carefully from the oven. Cut in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides.

5. Combine potato innards, cooked butternut squash, yogurt, coconut oil, nutritional yeast, salt, and spices in a bowl. Mash until combined. (You can carefully use a stand mixer, but do not use a blender or food processor - the potatoes will become unpleasantly sticky.)

6. Scoop the filling back into the potato (or if you’re fancy, use a piping bag.) Return to the 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes, until the filling is hot and the top is crispy.

7. Transfer to a bowl or plate. To serve, top with another dollop of yogurt, a sprinkle of salt to taste, about half the crispy chickpeas, and whatever other toppings your heart desires.

8. Pace behind the buffet line casting warning glances at anyone who approaches your potato - or, if you’ve scaled up, enjoy with friends. The choice is yours…but if you want to follow this week’s sacral chakra theme, perhaps pause to remember that connection and enjoyment are linked to each other.

Curried Butternut Squash Twice Baked Potato

484KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

It turns out there are plenty of golden milk oats, warm chia pudding, and squash rice pudding recipes out there - this last one apparently being a traditional Ukrainian dish, Harbuzova Kasha, that sounds absolutely delicious if you’re in the mood for something with more sugar and butter than my recipe below. I wanted something that brought together a little of all of this and went to the kitchen to see what I could do.

This recipe is a little like rice or tapioca pudding with sweetness from the butternut squash and a little protein boost from the quinoa (and dairy or soy milk, if you use one of those.) I’ve added some classic warming and anti-inflammatory spices: turmeric, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon. I highly recommend topping this with some honey and pumpkin seeds, but serve it any way you like - maple syrup, apple, a different variety of nut, granola, or even more roasted squash would be nice here.

Final note - I’m not using an Instant Pot or any other shortcuts for this one - we’re going old-fashioned on the stovetop. We’re entering the season where a bubbling pot perfuming the kitchen just feels cozy. I recommend pulling a chair up to the stove and having a nice read as you stir. Despite the hands-on time, this recipe couldn’t be simpler - a lovely little kitchen meditation.

Warm Chia and Quinoa Pudding with Butternut Squash (Serves 6)

1 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 3 cups)*

5 cups milk of choice (nutrition information is for whole dairy milk, but you could use soy, oat, almond, etc. depending on your taste and preferences)

1/2 cup quinoa

1/2 cup chia seeds

3/4 t ground ginger

1 1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 t cardamom

1/4 t turmeric

6 T honey and 6 T pumpkin seeds, for serving

*Peeling butternut squashes can be tedious. One (controversial) trick is to pop the whole thing in the microwave for about five minutes first. You are also allowed to use frozen butternut squash cubes, available in most major grocery stores.

1. Add milk and peeled, cubed butternut squash to a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over low to medium heat.

2. Add the quinoa, chia seeds, and spices. Stir every few minutes - milk, in particular dairy milk, likes to stick to the bottom of the pot.

3. Continue cooking and stirring until the quinoa has cooked, the squash has softened, and you reach a pudding-like consistency, about 25-30 minutes.

4. Serve with your favorite toppings! I like a tablespoon each honey and pumpkin seeds per bowl, but let your taste and preferences be your guide.

Nutritional information per serving, with whole milk, honey, and pumpkin seeds: 379 calories, 14.1 g fat, 48.5 g carbohydrates, 8.3 g dietary fiber, 13.3 g protein.

That’s all for this week, friends. Until Monday - Fare Well.

Below: recipe PDF and audio version of this post.

Quinoa Chia Pudding

1000KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

It has also included more cake, fewer vegetables, less sleep, and less water than I’m used to running on. My heart is full, my hands are happy - truly nothing brings me more joy than feeding friends and family - and, my digestive system would like to have a word.

I’m not generally a big “cleanse” fan - that category often being a sneaky way to make a crash diet seem “wellnessy” - but there are definitely times when my body could use a little extra support. So when two different friends recently mentioned “this Indian tea, I think it has some cumin in it?” that they drink for digestion, I got to googling.

The results of that search led me to text my sister: “am I the only one who’s been sleeping on CCF tea”? Sis texted back “what’s CCF?”, thinking I had some hot goss (am I using that right? Yikes, I’m old) to share. Fortunately sis and I share a love of holistic medicine, so in the end she was more excited about the literal tea than whatever news I might have had about the next big K-Pop band.

CCF tea is a blend of coriander, cumin, and fennel seeds, recommended in Ayurveda to support digestion, reduce inflammation, bloating, and gas, and stimulate liver and kidney function. The beverage is considered tridoshic, meaning that it’s good for all body types. You can buy a ready-made blend online, but chances are pretty good you may already have these ingredients in your kitchen. This is one you may want to keep on hand as the festive season approaches!

To prepare, your tea, you want to boil the herbs, rather than steep them, to extract more of the beneficial compounds in the seeds. You can add ginger and serve this with honey if you like (recommended for Kapha and Vata dosha types); if you’re a Pitta like me you may want to instead serve this with a squeeze of lime.

CCF Tea for Two

1 t whole coriander seeds

1 t whole fennel seeds

1 t whole cumin seeds

3 cups water

Optional: ginger, honey, and/or lime

Add the herbs and water to a pot, including ginger if desired. Bring to a boil and then simmer for five to ten minutes. Strain into two cups and serve with lime and/or honey, as per your taste and constitution. Sip in the morning, between meals, or any time your belly could use a little extra love.

That’s all for this week, friends. Have a great weekend, and Fare Well.

Below: Recipe PDF and audio version of this post.

Post audio:

Recipe PDF:

Ccf Tea

450KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

When my husband and I lived in Tucson, we used to love going to a little diner called Frank’s, which had a big sign that read “elegant dining elsewhere” and served an absolutely classic old-school, no-frills breakfast. At night, Frank’s turned into Francisco’s de Noche, a BYOB Sonoran Mexican spot. The food was always delicious, and if you arrived especially hungry (these were my triathlon training days, so I always did) you could help yourself to the condiments (pickled carrots!) and a big pot of charro beans - pinto beans cooked Sonoran style - while you waited.

After moving to West Virginia, we were delighted to discover that Appalachia has a direct analog to the Southwest’s beans-and-tortillas: out here they call them soup beans, and they serve them with cornbread. It’s a cheap (I recently picked up a 10-pound bag of pinto beans on sale for $6!), filling, and nutritious meal that just about anyone can throw together. Did you know that beans and corn have complimentary amino acid profiles? Eat them together (as you know you want to do anyway) and you’re getting a complete protein. Another fun fact: a cup of cooked pinto beans has more potassium - 746 mg! - than a banana!

Both the Sonoran and Appalachian preparations traditionally rely on pork for seasoning and fat, but although you’ll find bone broth in many of my recipes, that’s about the extent of the animal inclusions you’ll see here. I tend to prefer a more Mediterranean / Blue Zone profile for most day-to-day cooking: low in animal fat, high in plants.

This version of soup beans fits that bill, although I do recommend using a little bit of butter here, which adds a negligible amount of saturated fat per serving but really helps lend an unctuous texture that would otherwise be lacking. If you want to make these vegan, coconut oil would also work just fine - or use olive oil instead for a fruitier flavor.

I’m also using unsoaked beans, one of the great delights of owning an Instant Pot. While this recipe isn’t exactly instant, it does come together with about ten minutes of hands-on time and absolutely no advance planning, great for those evenings when you’re not exactly in the mood to cook…but not exactly in the mood for takeout or a freezer dinner, either. The recipe makes 8 servings and is an excellent addition to your meal-prep routine - nothing simpler for lunch than heating a bowl of beans and crumbling some cornbread on top.

Speaking of cornbread - you can make some in the time it takes the beans to cook! I’m not going to give you a recipe, because this one is perfect. I swap out the bacon drippings for butter, but it’s your kitchen - do as you like!

No Instant Pot? No problem! If you’re cooking these on a stovetop, do soak the beans overnight first, and then proceed as per the directions, increasing cook time as needed to ensure the beans fully soften.

As a final note: these beans are pretty strongly seasoned. You can always dial things back a bit, but let’s not be timid here. Even the humble bean likes to get a little dressed up sometimes.

Vegetarian Instant Pot Soup Beans (serves 8)

2 cups dry pinto beans

6 cups water (or omit the soup base below and use vegetable stock)

2 T Better than Bouillon soup base (I like the organic vegetable)

2 T avocado oil (or other neutral-tasting oil)

3 medium onions, diced

4 celery stalks, diced

3 carrots, scrubbed (no need to peel!) and diced

4 cloves garlic, peeled

2 bay leaves

2-3 t smoked paprika*

2-3 t garlic powder*

2 T butter**

2 T nutritional yeast***

*start with 2t of each; taste after cooking and decide whether to add the third

**you can use coconut oil to make this vegan, or any other fat you prefer. Nutritional information is with butter. I do not recommend making this recipe fat-free - it wants just a little “oomph.”

***optional, but adds a nice bit of umami, along with some B vitamins!

1. Dice the celery, onions, and carrots.

2. Set the Instant Pot to “sauté”, add the avocado oil to heat, then add the carrots, onions, and celery, stirring until the onions are translucent.

3. Add everything else. There’s no need to chop the garlic - it will break down as the beans cook.

4. Close the lid, set the valve to “sealing” and set to pressure cook on “high” for 50 minutes (you need a little extra time for dry beans, but it’s all hands off!)

5. (If you’re planning to make that cornbread, this is your chance.)

6. Once finished, allow pressure to naturally release, open the lid, and give everything a good stir. Adjust seasoning to taste.

7. Enjoy your non-elegant dining experience!

Nutritional information (per serving): 274 calories; 7.2 g fat (2.4 g saturated); 40.5 g carbohydrates, 9.8 g dietary fiber, 12.6 g protein

That’s all for this week, friends. Until Monday - Fare Well.

Below: Audio version of this post and recipe PDF

Soup Beans

113KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

I was going to give you a lasagne recipe this week.

I’ve been in the kitchen prepping for an Italian pop-up dinner at the dive bar a couple miles down the road and have been slinging around vegetarian comfort food - mushrooms, caramelized onions, béchamel.

But I’ll be honest, readers - after all that stirring and layering and cheese, this morning had me craving something simple, nourishing, and balanced. You almost got a formula for a green juice - my food cravings have been swinging from one pole to the other with the weather - but last night we had our first frost and it was a chilly walk down to the pasture. And so: oats.

As always, this is less a recipe and more a method - adjust to suit your taste, diet and goals. A couple tweaks to the standard oatmeal procedure help me with my goals and preferences:

We’re using oat groats here, which are just whole, hulled, but otherwise minimally processed, oats. They’re far chewier and more satisfying than oatmeal, even the steel-cut kind. Beyond taste, whole grains (in contrast with bread, pasta, and yes - even oatmeal) tend to increase satiety - important for those of us seeking to manage our weight without being chronically hangry.

I use bone broth as my cooking liquid because it both adds a little depth of flavor, and because it’s one of my favorite easy ways to add a little protein, in the form of collagen, to my breakfast. Water or another broth would also work just fine.

If you’re a garlic fan, throwing in a couple cloves is a great way to amp up the umami while boosting the immune-supporting properties of your meal (along with an array of other health benefits.)

Onward to the recipe:

Savory Instant Pot Oat Groats (serves 6)

2 cups oat groats

4 cups bone broth (I like Pacific Foods Chicken)

1 cup water*

1 T soy sauce

1 T sesame oil

4-6 cloves garlic, peeled (optional but recommended)

Add all ingredients to an Instant Pot and set to pressure cook on “high” for 20 minutes. After cooking, allow pressure to naturally release. Open the lid and give everything a good stir.

*For the “best” texture, I like 1 part oats to 2.5 parts liquid as per the recipe above. The bowl at left is 1:3; the bowl at right is 1:2.

Serve with your favorite savory toppings! The bowl at the top of this post has two fried eggs, beta carotene rich thanks to my free-ranging hens - bringing my meal up to a nice 24 grams of protein - a giant handful of salad greens, some green onions, and a spoonful of mango chili achar (just because.)

Other things that would be delicious here:

• Any leftover vegetables hanging out in your fridge (broccoli, sweet potatoes, squash, mushrooms, greens…sky’s the limit.)

• An alternate protein/fat: fish, bacon, sautéed tofu, etc.

• Cheese! Everything is better with cheese. Or nutritional yeast.

• More condiments: chili crisp, extra soy, sesame seeds or oil, sriracha, scallion oil…

I like to think of this recipe as a blank canvas - start with the oats and build a meal how you like it! Or just open the fridge and perhaps inspiration will strike.

Nutritional info per serving: 224 calories, 5.4 g fat, 31.8 g carbohydrates, 5.1 g fiber, 11.9 g protein.

Have a wonderful fall weekend, and fare well.

Below: audio version of this post + recipe PDF

Post audio:

Recipe:

Savory Oats

558KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

This has been a heavy week, friends - on this blog (grief and job loss and rhymes-with-yahtzee…oh my), in the news, maybe in your personal life or that of someone close to you. And so, for my Friday “Fare Well” post, I’d like to keep things a little lighter:

A salad.

At any given dinner party (or brunch), I can usually be relied upon to volunteer a kale salad. As a yoga teacher and health coach, this is pretty on-brand; the truth is, I really do LOVE kale. And I’d like to persuade you to love it, too.

If you want to love kale, it’s my opinion that you need to show it a little affection first. This week’s food post is less a recipe than a process. Maybe think of this salad prep as a little bonus mindfulness content; a kitchen meditation.

You’ll need:

• A bunch of kale

• Dressing ingredients (oil, lemon, salt, pepper, herbs)

• Something sweet/fruity (apple, blueberries, dried fruit…)

• Something crunchy (pepitas, hazelnuts, croutons)

• A roasted fall vegetable (sweet potato, beets, winter squash)

• Some protein (tofu, beans, turkey, salmon)

• Anything else that calls to you from your refrigerator!

Think painterly: if my salad were art, what colors and textures could I add?

Step 1: Get yourself a bunch of kale, not a chopped bag. The chopped bags seem convenient, but the problem is that they usually include lots of stems, tough and unfriendly to eat, and are chopped almost small enough, but not quite.

Step 2: Separate the stems from the kale. This just takes a few seconds and yields a pile of leafy greens alongside a pile of woody bits. The stems you can use in soup, or compost, or snack on if you’re hard-core like that. The leaves are what you want here.

Step 3: Wash the leaves. Immerse them in a bowl of cold water, swirl them around a bit. Nothing ruins a nice salad like mouth full of dirt or sand. When they’re clean, grab the leaves a handful at a time and wring out any excess water (or use a salad spinner if you’re fancy.)

Step 4: Chop the kale. You want it pretty small here. There’s a whole post I’ve yet to write about those impossible-to-eat restaurant salads with leaves the size of your head that really only work if you’re an actual dinosaur. Let’s try for something you can fit on a fork.

Step 5: Dressing! For a bunch of kale, you’ll want approximately:

• 2 T mild-tasting oil (avocado is great; olive oil if you don’t mind a little bitterness)

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 1/2 t salt

• 1/4 t pepper

• Herbs of your choice (I love a good Swiss herb blend; anything you like, including garlic/oregano/basil/parsley, would be nice. If you have some fresh herbs, even better.)

Mix up your dressing and pour it on the greens.

Step 6: Give it a massage. This is the big “secret” to a great kale salad: break down those cell walls a little, leaving it nice and relaxed.

If you’ve read this far, a little story-as-salad-metaphor:

Thursday was my weekly baking day. Once a week, my kitchen becomes a cottage bakery and I set aside everything else to crank out sourdough and gluten-free goodies. This week I asked my dad if he’d like a loaf, and he requested “a half a loaf of sandwich bread…I can’t eat a whole loaf” [pause] “but…like, a Yiddish half, more of a 5/8 loaf than a 3/8 loaf.” “Yiddish” being my dad’s shorthand for: make it kosher, a little generous, worthy of a Shabbos table, not just the secondhand crumbs.

As it happens, this about describes how I like my salad: sure, it’s on the lighter side, but also…it should be worthy of the dinner table, celebratory and substantial, not some sad shreds of iceberg with a half-ripe tomato wedge and some bottled French dressing. And so:

Step 7: Assemble your salad. This “recipe” is good for about three salads, give or take. Start with a handful of dressed greens and then play - make something beautiful! Find colors and textures that you like. I recommend something fruity, something crunchy, a little protein, a fall veg. Below, I’ve got an apple, some roasted sweet potato (because I had some left over from soup last week), a little BBQ tofu, some pepitas (because I put pumpkin seeds on everything), the last of a jar of castelvetrano olives, and a little shredded smoked cheddar. But truly: add whatever you like, just make it a celebration and not a chore.

Step 8: Enjoy! Pairs well with autumn sunlight, good company, and/or a substantial portion of fresh-baked bread.

Below: audio version of this post + recipe PDF

Kale Salad

1.4MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

I do occasionally get up to a little bar-kitchen mischief, throwing a vegetable-filled special on the menu to mix things up, adding a little relief for the palate from jalapeño poppers and Old Bay wings. Last week, I was in a soup mood, so I assembled an easy mix of sweet potatoes, lentils, and collard greens. My husband came down to check out my work. “How’s the soup?” I asked him. “Familiar,” he replied, as someone intimately familiar with my abiding love of garlic and smoked paprika. And honestly - that’s exactly what I want in a soup. Comfort, familiarity…and maybe, because reminding people about colon health is one of my favorite forms of evangelism, a little dietary fiber.

This soup takes about an hour and a half all in, but most of that is simmer time. Serve it with some cornbread and get nice and cozy.

Lentil, Sweet Potato, and Collard Green Soup (Serves 6)

2 chopped onions

2 chopped celery stalks

2 cloves minced garlic

2 T olive oil

2 T tomato paste

6 cups vegetable (or chicken) stock - sub bone broth for more protein

3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 cup dry lentils (any kind you like)

1 bunch collard greens, washed and coarsely chopped

1 t smoked paprika

1 t garlic powder

1/2 t black pepper

Salt to taste

Saute the onions and celery in the olive oil until translucent; add garlic and cook a few minutes more. Add the stock or bone broth, peeled and cubed sweet potatoes and lentils. After a half hour, add the collard greens. Simmer until lentils and sweet potatoes are soft, about an hour total. Stir vigorously - the sweet potatoes will break down a little into the broth. Add seasonings and salt, adjusting to taste. Serve with your favorite bread or over rice.

Nutrition Information per serving (with vegetable broth): 249 calories, 5.4 g fat, 11.6 g protein, 40.8 g carbs, 7.9 g fiber

Lentil Soup

95.5KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Since encountering a Yotam Ottolenghi-inspired whole roasted cauliflower years ago, somewhere in the wilds of the internet, I’ve served the dish dozens of times - for family at the holidays, on a weeknight, for retreat guests. Every time, it’s a showstopper - and every time, my diners request the recipe. I finally went searching for the original and, although I found many variations on the theme, I turned up nothing that really resembles what’s now my standard version. So I suppose the recipe I present below is “mine” now, as inevitably happens when food preparations are handed down and along.

I love this cauliflower because it does such a glorious job of showcasing one of the most humble vegetables. Poor cauliflower gets made into “rice” and “pizza crust” and “mashed potatoes” and “buffalo wings”, but rarely gets its own moment in the sun. This presentation changes that completely, letting everyone’s favorite carb substitute have its supermodel moment.

A coaching client recently asked me if I had a nutrition reason for suggesting this particular recipe. And although cruciferous vegetables, including cauliflower, have a wide array of health benefits, the real answer is no - I love this recipe simply because it’s beautiful and delicious. A slightly longer answer might circle back to yes - because if you can find it in your heart to love a cauliflower dish, I have confidence I just might sneak some kale into your lunch next.

All that said, this is more method than recipe. My proportions are probably a little different every time, and I hesitate to even give measurements - please feel welcome to play around to suit your taste and what’s in your refrigerator. Who knows - maybe after a dozen or so dinner parties you’ll find yourself sharing “your” roasted cauliflower recipe!

Whole Roasted Cauliflower a la Ottalenghi

Serves 2-4

1 whole cauliflower

2 T olive oil

Salt to taste

1/2 c tahini

2 T white miso

1-2 cloves garlic (fresh or roasted)

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 t smoked paprika

1/2 c minced fresh parsley

1/4 c pomegranate seeds (here’s an Intractable on cutting a pomegranate, or just buy the seeds)

2 T pine nuts

1 oz (or more) crumbled feta

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees

2. Clean and steam the cauliflower: remove outer leaves and leave head intact. Insert steamer basket into a pot and heat an inch of water. Steam the cauliflower for about five minutes, until just tender.

3. Carefully remove the cauliflower to a baking sheet (or use a Pyrex/oven safe bowl that you will serve in.) Rub with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt.

4. Bake the cauliflower at 425 until tender and browned, about 20 minutes.

5. While the cauliflower is baking, prepare the tahini sauce: add tahini, miso, minced or pressed garlic cloves, lemon juice, smoked paprika, and salt to taste. Stir with a fork, adding warm water a little at a time until you reach a pourable consistency.

6. When the cauliflower is cooked, remove from the oven. Leave in dish or transfer to a serving plate.

7. Garnish lavishly: first, pour the tahini sauce on top. Then, sprinkle with parsley, pine nuts, feta, and pomegranate seeds.

8. Cut into halves or quarters and serve, sprinkling additional sauce/toppings on to your heart’s content.

9. Watch your dinner guests swoon over cruciferous vegetables.

Serving and substitution suggestions:

• This whole sauce-and-topping combo also makes for a luxurious baked sweet potato, if you’re not feeling the cauliflower. Or, chop up a sweet potato (smaller is better here), toss in some olive oil and salt, and roast with the cauliflower!

• Whole cauliflower too fussy? Roasted florets are just as tasty, and might even have an advantage in the cauliflower-to-topping ratio department.

• This would be lovely served on a bed of a cooked whole grain like farro or bulgur.

• Use any nut, herb, or cheese your heart desires in place of the ones suggested here. Pumpkin seeds (pictured below), walnuts, parmesan, goat cheese, chopped green onion, cilantro…

• The pomegranate seeds are, I suppose, optional, but they do make the whole project look extremely festive. Which is kind of the point.

Festive Cauliflower

591KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Just kidding. Well, about that first part.

Look, friends: the world is a scary, unpredictable place. And while I LOVE my leafy greens (breakfast kale salad? Yes please), I cut my teeth - literally! - on cookies I “helped” bake in the kitchen with my Mom when I was about two years old. Some food provides vitamins and minerals - and some connects us to cherished memories. Both kinds of food nourish us.

While I do plan to devote most of this section to foods that have measurable virtues like protein and fiber (raise your hand if I *haven’t* ranted to you about skyrocketing rates of colorectal cancer, a favorite subject that makes me a hoot at parties), sometimes…you just want a little something sweet. And it is my firm opinion that if you’re going to have something sweet, it should be absolutely delicious.

With that, I invite you to bake up a batch of my signature Spotted Dog Farm (our homestead in West Virginia) “Shepherd’s Cookies.” These are a variation on your classic monster or cowboy cookies with a couple of tweaks:

• I don’t use brown sugar in my kitchen…I keep molasses and white sugar on hand and tweak the ratios as desired. If you don’t have molasses, sub all brown sugar here - we want these to be nice and chewy.

• Unsalted butter and natural peanut butter (strongly recommend chunky, and look for the stuff with no added oils or sugars, just peanuts and salt) are essential here.

• No candy - but lots of good quality chocolate. I like Callebaut white and dark callets, but if a 5.5-pound bag of Belgian couverture chocolate isn’t on your shopping list, any good-quality chocolate will do. I like pumpkin seeds, but you can use whatever you like.

Other essential notes:

• You want that natural peanut butter to hydrate and soak into those oats! These cookies will be MUCH better if you observe the at-least-two-hour chill time before baking and then bake until JUST set.

All right, plans for weekend set! If I may be so bold, I encourage LESS doomscrolling and MORE baking. And hey, maybe throw a breakfast salad in there. For balance.

Shepherd’s Cookies (Like a monster/cowboy cookie…but better)

1 cup (226 g)butter

1 cup (396 g) granulated sugar (you could use coconut sugar if you wanted - if so omit the molassas

2 T (85 g) molassas

1 cup (270 g) natural peanut butter

2 large eggs

2 t vanilla extract

2 c (240 g) all-purpose flour

2.5 cups (283 g) old-fashioned rolled oats

.5 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 sweet semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup raw pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds)

Cream butter, sugar, and molasses until light and fluffy; add vanilla and eggs and continue beating until fully incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, then add to the creamed butter mixture. Add the oats, chocolate chips, and pepitas and stir to combine.

Using a cookie scoop or big spoon, form into large balls - you should get about 22 big cookies. Refrigerate the scooped dough (it is much more difficult to chill and then shape) for at least two hours - overnight is even better. (Once chilled, you can also freeze your dough balls, baking just a couple at a time - a fabulous company-on-short-notice hack.)

Bake on a parchment-lined sheet at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes, or center is just set but still slightly underbaked. Cool on baking sheets. Share with someone you love.

Enjoy - and until Monday, fare well,

Havala

Below: audio version of this post + recipe PDF

Shepherd's Cookie

117KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

This week I’m beginning a new feature I’m calling “Fare Well Fridays”, puns fully intended. First: “fare” is both a word for food (“I enjoy simple fare”) and for a state of being or achievement (“How did you fare on your journey?”) In one sense, “Fare Well” could simply mean to partake in delicious food - something I always encourage - and it is also, of course, an expression of leave-taking. I’ve found that I benefit greatly from logging off social media completely for the weekend, as both a contributor and a consumer, and so: “Fare Well Fridays” a deliberate send-off, an expression of gratitude for what has nourished me through the week and a goodbye-for-now to the digital world until Monday. With some recipes thrown in.

This week has been particularly abundant in so many ways. In my “chaos garden”, seeded in neat little rows before a massive rainstorm and now an untamed wildland of tomatoes, zinnias, cowpeas, buckwheat, sunn hemp, and watermelon, one solitary sunflower plant (an earthwalker, I believe), is putting out a profusion of late blooms. In my “organized” garden (I use this term very loosely), the odd late-summer weather has yielded a surprise of very sweet little strawberries and one late but lovely nasturtium, vivid red. We seem to be easing into late-summer visiting season, with the pace of casual drop-bys from friends and last-minute social engagements escalating, and I’m feeling delighted, over and over again, by the amazing humans who have made their way into my life in one way or another.

In my kitchen, we’re back to bread-baking and cookie-making season, turning a cozy corner. My small-town library turned up a book I’d been meaning to read but forgetting to buy, just sitting casually on the end of a shelf, waiting for me. And, perhaps best of all for this morning mouse, the sun is beginning to rise just late enough to allow me a full cup of pre-dawn tea and a full page or two of early writing before sheep and chickens and other daylight tasks demand my attention.

About that tea: here’s the recipe I promised, although it’s really more of a serving suggestion. Here’s what’s been filling my literal cup this week (as my metaphorical one indeed does run over):

Lapsang Souchong “Latte”

1-2 T Lapsang Souchong tea.

2 T nonfat dry milk powder

Sweetener of choice (monkfruit, honey, and raw sugar are all delicious, depending on your nutritional preferences)

(Optional) collagen powder

Brew a large cup of strong tea. (I actually like to oversteep it just a little. I blame Eastern European ancestry.) Add a couple tablespoons of nonfat dry milk. (Hear me out - this adds a delightful creaminess without watering or cooling down the tea - plus it’s shelf stable, great if the power goes out or you’re camping!) Sweeten as desired (I usually desire a few drops of liquid monkfruit, but you may prefer honey - also delicious.) If you’re feeling like a little protein boost, you can add a scoop of a good-tasting collagen powder - I like this vanilla one. Stir, whisk, or use one of those fancy frother gadgets. Drink slowly while waiting for the rest of the world to wake.

That’s all for this week, friends. I’ll be back Monday with a little movement practice - until then, fare well.

Below: audio version of this post.