Morrocan Carrot and Chickpea Salad

For the last two weeks, my CSA delivered baby carrots, so have been trying a few different recipes – from soups to salads. I came across a cookbook Roots, by Diane Morgan – catchy title that has so many insinuations, like back to the roots of cooking, and cooking with root vegetables.

This salad embodies what I love most about salads – quick, easy and the ingredients are available year round. I added a bit of my own variation from the original recipe, as really you can add anything to this salad and it'll work. It's that versatile. On the plate is a heady toast of cumin dressing over julienne carrots (which you can use the food processor to cut down on time) cooked chickpeas, little chunks of medjool dates, and some fresh mint to open the palate with slivered almonds to garnish.

Serves 6

Ingredients
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
10 ounces carrots, julienne
2 cups cooked chickpeas (or one 15- ounce can, drained and rinsed)
2/3 cup medjool dates, cut into chickpea-sized pieces
1/3 cup fresh mint, chopped
For serving: lots of toasted almond slices

1. To make the dressing, first toast the cumin seeds in a dry skillet until fragrant and lightly browned, a minute or two. Let cool, and grind to a powder with a mortar and pestle.
2. In a bowl or jar, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, honey, ground cumin, salt, and cayenne pepper. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the carrots, chickpeas, dates, mint, and almonds. Gently toss until everything is evenly coated. Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. (You can toss this salad, minus the almonds, hours in advance. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.)

Curried Coconut Tomato Soup

As the tomatoes in the farmers market or your homegrown ones start to proliferate, this soup will make good use of those fresh tomatoes. Alternatively, you can use whole can tomatoes, preferably fire roasted. Make sure you get canned tomatoes that have the BPA-free liners. What makes this soup different from the ones you would find in a restaurant, is that it's influence is from India – with some hot flakes of chili and a cool down of coconut milk. Simple, quick and a perfect summer soup on those hot nights. Inspired and adapted from Melissa Clark's Cook This Now.

Curried Coconut Tomato Soup

Ingredients

4 tablespoons olive oil, or coconut oil
2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, plus more to taste
3 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chile flakes
2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes or 20 peeled tomatoes*

          6 cups (1.5 L) of water
          1 (14-ounce can) coconut milk

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions really soften up - 10 minutes or so.
2. Stir in the curry powder, coriander, cumin, and chile flakes, and cook just until the spices are fragrant and toasty - stirring constantly at this point. Just 30 seconds or so.
3. Stir in the tomatoes, the juices from the cans, and water. Simmer for fifteen minutes or so, then puree with a hand blender until smooth. Pour in the coconut milk. Taste and adjust with more salt to taste.

* To peel fresh tomatoes, the easiest method is over a gas flame. Remove any stems that are still attached to your tomatoes. Rinse the tomatoes clean and pat dry. Spear the tomato with a fork at the top, where the stem core is visible. Turn the stovetop flame to medium high. Hold the tomato an inch over the flame, turning slowly, until the skin begins to split and blister. It should take about 15-25 seconds for the skin to loosen all the way around the tomato. Don't hold it over the flame too long or it will start to cook the tomato. Place the tomato on a smooth surface and let it cool off enough for you to comfortably touch it. Begin peeling the skin where it split, making your way all around the tomato till all the skin is peeled off.

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Looks like Brick Oven Pizza

Just to be clear, this is not a pizza with cauliflower on it. This is a gluten free pizza where the actual crust is made from cauliflower. Interesting?..... right. That's what I thought when I first found this recipe and had to try it for myself. It is so simple to make.

I think everyone has a food weakness. What I mean is that we all have something we could eat day in and day out that could pack on the pounds, but then... we have to face the treadmill. I am so not into conventional exercising machines, and I do love my pizza. So I am here to introduce to you a really low fat, high fiber healthy pizza. If you ever thought pizza was just fattening, think again. It has been reinvented.

Actually pizza has been morphed quite a few times along the Silk Road. Although the origins of pizza are quite fuzzy, there is an agreement that it did come from Central or South Italy. Originally it's thought that pizza was a focaiccia dipped in fresh tomato sauce. In North Africa, we can find many cuisines that dip their bread in tomato sauce – so my thinking is that pizza originally came from North Africa, maybe even Yemen who are known for dipping the malawach (fried pastry bread) into a tomato puree. There was a direct connection between Africa and Italy in Ancient Rome, where slaves were imported from Africa. I know... not Rome's most stellar act in Ancient history.

Anyway, back to the recipe. The method for making this cauliflower pizza crust is by "ricing" the cauliflower. May seem like an odd term, but essentially what are going to do, is to process the raw cauliflower through a mill until it's broken down into little rice resembling pieces. If you want to make use of all the tomatoes coming in for the summer season, then you might want to make a fresh batch of tomato sauce.

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Serves 4; Adapted from Your Lighter Side.

Ingredients

1 large cauliflower, riced
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp dried oregano
3 cloves garlic, garlic
1/2 teaspoon Sea salt
olive oil,for glaze
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
Fresh Italian Herbs, such as basil for topping
  

Directions

To "Rice" the Cauliflower:

1. Take 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (If you don't have a food processor, you can grate the whole head with a cheese grater). Place the riced cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes (some microwaves are more powerful than others, so you may need to reduce this cooking time). There is no need to add water, as the natural moisture in the cauliflower is enough to cook itself.

To Make the Pizza Crust:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the cauliflower, eggs and 1 cup mozzarella. Add oregano, crushed garlic and salt, stir. Transfer to the cookie sheet, and using your hands, pat out into a 12" round pan. Brush olive oil over top of mixture to help with browning.
3. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.
4. Remove from oven. To the crust, add sauce, remaining mozzarella cheese and any Italian herbs of your choice. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes).

Enjoy!
*Note that toppings need to be precooked since you are only broiling for a few minutes.

Spicy Cucumber Peanut Salad in Lime Dressing

This salad is the best of both worlds for me. Cucumbers and limes which are so refreshing and cooling against the backdrop of the slight bite from the chilies. My taste buds just do a happy dance when I eat this. The utter simplicity of this salad with just a few ingredients; a hit of citrus, toasted peanuts and an exotic touch of slivered coconut –  transforms this ordinary cucumber salad into a complex and layered salad. This recipe has been Adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor's Cucumber Salad {Khamang Kakdi) in How to Cook Indian. Published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, April 2011.

Serve 4

Ingredients

3 medium cucumbers, partially peeled
1 green serrano chile, stemmed and minced
1/2 cup peanuts, toasted
1/3 cup dried large-flake coconut, toasted
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon natural cane sugar
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
scant 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
a handful cilantro, chopped

Directions

1. Halve the cucumbers lengthwise, scrape out the seeds, and chop into1/4 inch cubes. Just before you're ready to serve, transfer to a mixing bowl and toss gently with chile, peanuts, coconut, lime juice, and sugar.
   
    
2. Over medium heat, heat the oil in a small skillet and stir in the mustard seeds. When they start to pop, add the cumin for 15-30 seconds – just long enough to toast the spices. You'll know from the fragrance. Remove from heat, sprinkle in the salt, and immediately stir this into the salad. Turn out onto a patter topped with the cilantro.
   

Life and Times of Afghan Jews from Babylonian Captivity to Modern Times

This video is on the Afghan - Bukharian community that has roots from the Babylonian Exile. My family is part of this traveling pack that moved from country to country along the Silk Road. They started in Babylonia and then moved to Persia, Bukhara, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. There is so little information on Afghan Jews, although at their peak there were 40,000 Jews thriving economically in an Muslim country as Jews.  The men were all travelers, trading and expanding their cultural repertoire. So happy to see many photos of my parents that I have never seen before.  

Cauliflower Cheese Quiche in Potato Crust

It has been a wild few weeks now, which has resulted in me not being able to sit down and share some recipes with you. First off, it was Passover and I went down to Miami to spend the Seders with my extended family. We were 60 people on both nights of the Seders! It was a bit of a fiasco as everyone was singing out their own tunes at their own pace. Sounded like a singing audition where ever one is in their own world warming up their voices. It was a fun 2 nights, regardless.

It is customary for Bukharian Jews to wear a jomah during the Seder. Yes, you read that right, a jomah,  not a pajama, which is a silk brocade dress worn on festive occasions. My parents are posing the latest fashion trend - H&M - watch out! I am wearing an ordinary Chinese embroidered jacket, since I did not have my very own jomah to wear:-(

I came back to NY, only to fly back to Miami a week later, because subsequently my father became extremely ill and I went down there again to relieve my mother and brother of their hospital duties.

In the middle of all this, I found an amazing editor for a book I just finished writing called, "Spiritual Kneading for Rosh Chodesh" It's about the significance of baking challah on the Jewish New Moon every month. I am afraid I wont be posting anything from that book here, because it's all about challah - not OK for the gluten free community here.

On top of that, my publisher has asked me to buckle down and write out a marketing plan for my forthcoming cookbook "Silk & Spice: Recipes from the Silk Road for the Mindful Vegetarian" due out next Spring 2014. Although this was initially done when I wrote my proposal over a year ago, many things have changed since then, including my circle of foodies. So I had to revamp my marketing plan, which extended to my amazing circle on facebook. A big shout out to Mark Zuckerberg. I don't know what I would do with out him.

Amidst all of this, I was in the mood to cook something really satisfying, as this winter or Spring - what ever you want to call it, just does not end. I wanted comfort foods. Something grounding and earthy.

Years ago when I was veering towards vegetarianism, Mollie Katzen was the IT person for hearty vegetarian recipes. She still is the Queen. I am just a Queen from Queens... (little humor needed when in crisis) I still turn to her recipes that never disappoint. I often make this quiche when I have a HUGE bag of potatoes lying around from my left over winter CSA season. Make use of the food processor to cut down on time for the crust. This potato crust quiche is moist and stays put together after cooking. Make sure you pick from the freshest cauliflower around, otherwise it alters the taste to mush.You could always experiment with different cheeses. Enjoy this quiche with a nice big leaf lettuce salad on the side. This recipe comes from The New Moosewood  Cookbook.

Cauliflower Cheese Quiche in Potato Crust

Serves 4

Ingredients

for the crust
2 cups grated raw potato (from 2-3 peeled potatoes)
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg white, beaten
¼ cup grated onion

for the filling
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup diced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon dried basil
1 head cauliflower, broken into florets
1 cup (4-5 oz.) grated cheddar cheese
2 eggs
¼ cup milk

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F and generously oil a 9″ pie dish, so that your potato crust does not attach to your pie dish.
2. Pull out your food processor with a grating disk. That will make for quick work grating each of the following separately: the cheese, then the potatoes, then the onion.
   
3. To make the crust, place the grated potatoes in a colander and toss them with the salt.  Wait 10 minutes, then squeeze out the excess water.  A salad spinner works well for this, or you can wring the potatoes out in a dishtowel.  Stir together the potatoes, egg white and onion in a large bowl, then pat the mixture evenly into your pie dish , building them up the sides to form the crust.
   
4. Bake for 30 minutes, then brush the crust lightly with olive oil and bake for 10 more minutes.  Remove from oven and lower the temp to 375°F.
   
5. While the crust bakes, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.  Add the onion, garlic, salt, pepper (to taste) and herbs and sauté for about 5 minutes until the onions are translucent.  Add the cauliflower and stir well to coat.  Cover and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the cauliflower is tender, 8-10 minutes.  Add a tablespoon of water if the cauliflower begins to stick to the pan.
   
6. Spread half the cheese over the crust and spoon the cauliflower mixture over, then sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.  Whisk together the eggs and the milk, then pour this mixture over the cauliflower cheese mixture.
   
7. Bake 35-40 minutes, until set.

Cauliflower Peanut Curry

There are times, when not to judge a book by its cover. Sometimes looks are really deceiving and I think that could be a good thing. If everything looked as it seemed there would be no mystery. Mystery is needed to seduce and to entice curiosity. That being said, let me address this picture before anything else. I wish I could blame the appearance of this meal on my lack of camera skills, or that it was having a bad "vegetable day" (Ha, Ha... ok I thought that was cute) however it's just no beauty.

In spite of its less then stellar looks (poor thing) this peanuty coconut curry cauliflower dish tastes divine on a bed of brown basmati rice doused with raita, lemon slices, toasted slivered almonds, fresh or toasted coconut, raisins and sliced cucumbers. Shew.... Try saying that all in one breath. Pick your choice. This time around I chose coconut flakes.

This recipe comes originally from The New Moosewood Cookbook. I have modified some of the ingredients and recipe techniques to not only give it more protein and less carbs, (I do like to watch my figure;-) but to mimic authentic Indian cuisine. Sauteing the spices before the onions, creates the foundation for this dish and intensifies the flavors even more. And I definitely like intensity.

Cauliflower Peanut Curry

Serves 6

Ingredients
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 large onion, chopped
1 teaspoon Sea salt 
3 medium cloves garlic, peeled
1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, minced

1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, reserve some for garnish
1/2 cup lightly toasted peanuts
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup water (more, as needed)

1 large cauliflower, cut in 1-inch pieces
1 medium carrot, cut into coin medallions
1 cup cooked chick peas
Juice of 1 lemon

Directions

1. Heat the coconut oil in a large, deep skillet and add the mustard seeds, turmeric, ground cloves, cumin seeds and cayenne pepper.  Once the mustard seeds start to pop,  (less than a minute) stir in the onions and salt. Saute for 5 minutes over medium heat, until onions start to become translucent. Add the garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant.
2. In the meantime, in a blender puree the peanuts, sesame seeds and shredded coconut with water. If it's too thick, add more water. This should have the consistency of a thick paste.
3. Then add cauliflower and carrot and mix well. Cover and cook about 10 minutes, then add the paste. Mix well. Cook, covered, over low heat until the cauliflower is tender, stirring every few minutes. Add more water, if necessary, to prevent sticking.
4. Add the chick peas, and lemon juice, and cook a few more minutes. Taste to adjust salt, and serve hot, with rice and condiments.