French Potatoes with Green Beans

Here I am back from the winter hibernation with a recipe for a warm potato salad, which can be served as a side dish or a light main course. I have to confess... I don't really like string beans, but I know they are good for you... So, I think I found one tasty way to incorporate them into my family's diet. Here it is...

• 3 tbsp of organic or imported corn oil (sunflower or olive oil can be used),


• 1 large onion, chopped,


• 2 celery stacks, chopped,


• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped,


• 4 large potatoes, cut into potato salad pieces- whatever you like,


• 1 lbs of string beans, trimmed and cut into 1" pieces,


• 1 tsp of black mustard seeds, optional,


• dash of red pepper,


• dash or black pepper and salt,


• 1-2 tsp of Dijon mustard,


• 1 tbsp of Mayo,


• 1/4 cup of chopped dill

Heat the oil in a large saute pan, add onion, celery and garlic. Cook on low to medium heat until lightly browned and soft. Add potatoes and cook until browned and half cooked. Add salt and peppers. Add beans, stir, cover and cook until potatoes are ready, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, add the mustard, mayo and dill. Mix and serve. Yum!

Broccoli Rabe Salad

Another simple, but wonderful culinary creation came out from combining some left-over ingredients, that were sitting in my fridge. ("wonderful" as per the in-house food critics...)

There was a bunch of broccoli rabe begging to be used. I could have simply steamed it, but that would be too boring. Life is too short to be boring.

Broccoli Rabe Salad
1 bunch of Broccoli rabe, hard stems trimmed
2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
1/2 red pepper (this is how you get stuck with left-over ingredients!), chopped
1 can of cannellini beans
1/2 cup of organic white cheddar, shredded
Fresh basil- small bunch, torn into pieces
2 tbSp Olive oil or more to taste
1 tbSp white wine vinegar or more to taste
Salt, pepper

Heat olive oil on medium heat in a large sauté pan. Add broccoli rabe, cover and steam for a couple of minutes until it wilts a bit, then open the lid and let the moisture evaporate. Add garlic, salt and pepper and toss for a minute or so, remove from heat. Add tomatoes, peppers, beans, cheddar and basil and mix well. Eat warm with some fresh crusty bread of your choice.

Orzo and Vegetable Bake - Italian Style...

Last night I looked in the fridge, saw what was there and invented this Italian style bake. My kids absolutely loved it. They begged me to put it on the blog and enter into the Vegetarian Times recipe contest :) Well, I dunno about that one... This is a super fast easy way to treat your family to some Italian style comfort food. It takes less than 1/2 hour.

Orzo and Vegetable Bake - Italian Style...

You'll need:

1 box of orzo 12 oz or 16 oz
1 eggplant, cut in 1 inch cubes
About 3 cups of organic spinach
1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup of grated Parm cheese (can be less)
Salt, pepper, olive oil

You can use any combination of vegetables for this. I would imagine bell peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, cannellini beans etc would work just fine. Sprinkle eggplant with salt and let it sit in a colander for about 30 min (feel free to skip this step is pressed for time). Boil pasta. While the pasta is cooking, heat oil in a sauté pan, add eggplant and cook until barely soft - a couple of minutes. Add spinach and cook, stirring, until wilts. Add the sauce, mix well and bring to boil. Drain pasta and transfer to a large Pyrex casserole dish. Spread in an even layer. Top with the vegetable mix, sprinkle with cheeses and bake until the cheese melts. About 15 minutes. Enjoy!

Quick dinner anyone?

How 'bout a delicious, nutritious dinner in less than 15 minutes? Here we go...

You'll need:

1 bunch of organic broccoli
1 cup of quinoa (red or white)
2 tbsp of almond oil (olive oil will do)
1/4 cup of parm cheese (feel free to skip that for a vegan version)
1/4 to 1/4 cup of sliced almonds, toasted
salt, pepper to taste

Cook quinoa according to directions (usually 2 cups of water per 1 cup of quinoa). While the quinoa is cooking, toast the almonds, then cut the bottom half of the stems from broccoli and chop up the rest. Heat oil in a large pan and sauté or stir-fry broccoli, until cooked, but still crisp. Add salt and pepper, stir in cooked quinoa, almonds, cheese if using and serve.

A Perfect Spring Soup...

Back in the days when vitamin supplements were not available and fruits and vegetables weren't dragged over the Equator, people really looked forward to spring and first vitamin packed greens: spinach, French sorrel, nettle... French sorrel is a very unique plant with quite a bit of pleasant tartness, similar to lemon. If you find it in a garden store, plant it in full sun and it will keep coming back year after year. In addition to having a pleasant taste, it promotes digestion. Sorrel is great in sauces, pies (think Rhubarb!) and salads.

If you lucky enough to find nettle growing wild ( Appalachian Trail /Broadwalk in Warwick! ) - bring some gloves along: raw nettle can sting your skin. It's not harmful, just a bit unpleasant. Nettle is not as tart as sorrel.

Light nettle and sorrel Soups are very popular in Europe. Here is one version for you. My kids call it French Egg Drop Soup... If you don't know what French sorrel or nettle is AND don't want to find out, then use organic spinach instead.



French Sorrel Spring Soup

6-8 cups of organic vegetable broth
3 medium potatoes, cut into small pieces
Large bunch of French sorrel, chopped
2 eggs, beaten

Cook potatoes in the boiling broth until done - don’t overcook. Add sorrel and then slowly add the eggs, stirring all the time. Done!
This is almost as easy as opening a can!

How to make Paneer (Indian Cheese)

Some of you have been asking for this recipe for a while. Finally I am getting to it...

Fresh Paneer is a cross between cheese and cottage cheese. It can be used by itself or in dishes. Make sure to use organic dairy ingredients. If you plan to use any sour dairy ingredient in place of the lemon juice (like yogurt, kefir, buttermilk or even sour cream), make sure that it's at the room temperature.

Paneer - Home Style Indian Cheese

10 cups of milk

5 Tbsp of lemon juice or 1.5 cup of yogurt or 2.5 cups of buttermilk

Bring milk in a boil in a very large pot. Meanwhile get a strainer ready: line it up with 2 layers of cheese cloth, place it over a large pot. When the milk starts to rise, add the lemon juice (yogurt, or buttermilk). You'll see the separation right away. Curds will separate from the clear yellowish-green liquid. Remove the pot from the heat. If the liquid is not clear, return to the heat and add more lemon juice (acid). Do not overcook or the texture will be ruined. Unfortunately, the milk that we buy in the stores is processed. Which prevents it from forming the curds. If that is the case, then before draining, leave the mix for a couple of hours, until all the curds rise up to the surface, creating a firm cheesy layer.

Now you can make the cheese:

Drain the mix into the strainer and place it under press. The longer it sits, the harder it becomes.

If you need cottage cheese consistency, simply drain and squeeze all the liquid.

You'll get about 350 grams of Paneer.

Baked Eggplant Dip or the Upside of Natural Disasters

I suspect my family members pray for various natural disasters...When that collective prayer is answered, I am forced to close the studio and come home after work or better yet - stay home altogether. That usually means a five course dinner and baked goodies. Last night, instead of fixing knees in Warrior 2 in my Iyengar class I've got to experiment with a whole baked eggplant. As the flood waters crept to my studio, the blender was going... It resulted in a tasty dip, that could also replace ketchup for your home baked fires or your veggie burger. It can served as a side dish too, which it did last night.

Backed Eggplant Dip

1 large eggplant

2-3 Tbsp of tomato paste

1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1/4 tsp of coriander powder (or your favorite spice mix)

About 1 tsp of olive oil (optional)

Small bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped

Salt, pepper to taste

Cut several slits on the eggplant. Place it on a foil lined baking sheet and bake at 500F for 45 minutes. Let it cool, then peel the skin off. Transfer all that soft, gooey, baked goodness into a frying pan, add tomato paste and garlic and cook on medium heat until the liquid is evaporated. Remove from heat, add coriander, olive oil, salt, pepper, cilantro and pulse in a food processer/blender/chopper until smooth. Cool to room temperature and enjoy!

A short lesson in French Cooking

French cuisine can be intimidating. Just thinking about all the steps involved in Bouillabaisse preparation makes me want to take a day off. But the everyday French "style" cooking can be simple, inspiring, and economical. Step one: open your fridge and see what you have. Step two: decide what to make (can be daunting)

Here is my take on it, inspired by the latest issue of Vegetarian Times:

Pasta and Roasted Vegetables with White Wine Sauce

(ok, this is not a traditional French dish, but the cooking style is) This dish is Vegan if you skip the parm at the end.

You'll need:

Fresh vegetables - whatever you have: sweet peppers in any color, asparagus, mushrooms (I used shiitakes), Brussels' sprouts (just love them), baby artichokes, zucchinis or yellow squash, eggplant, onions, garlic, tomatoes. Any combination! About 4-5 cups

Herbs: parsley, basil or cilantro - chopped.

1 box of pasta

2-3 Tbsp of Olive Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Chop all your veggies up to fill a large roasting pan, spreading it thin, add salt and pepper to taste, add 2-3 Tbsp of Olive oil, mix it well and bake for 20 minutes in the oven preheated to 400 degrees. Stir, then add chopped tomatoes, if using, and bake another 10 min.

Meanwhile make pasta - any pasta you like will do. Cook according to directions, drain well and transfer back to the pot.

Remove the roasting pan from the oven and transfer the veggies into a dish. If you using herbs, you can add them now. Deglaze the pan for 5 min. with 1/2 cup of white wine. You can do it on the stove or, if using a Pyrex pan, in the oven. Then add 1/2 of cooking water from pasta. Add the wine sauce to your vegetables, mix well, adjust the seasoning and add to pasta.

Serve with grated Parm or Romano cheese.

Snow Day Mayo Cookies

My life is a constant flow from one thing to another. Different jobs, places, people, projects, tasks, chores, and commitments – it’s a constant kaleidoscope of things throughout the day. And then a snow day comes… I welcome being stuck in the house with nowhere to go and nothing to do (well, that is very relative). I can do all the things I dream about doing during the course of my on-the-go, crazy, fast paced life. I can knit, read, do an extra long yoga practice, soak in the tub and I can bake something yummy for my kids. They are stuck in the house with me. How cool is that! We can even play a game together. What a perfect life! (The life I can only take for a day or two…)

So, here is one of my snow day projects: Mayo Cookies… My mom used to make them. It may sound strange to some of you who are conservative when it comes to food, but they are truly delicious and simple. I will not attempt to describe the taste. Try for yourself.


Snow Day Mayo Cookies

4 oz of Mayo
4 oz of butter
1.5 cups of sugar
1 egg
½ tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of vanilla extract
4 cups of flour

Large non-stick baking sheets

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix all the ingredients well, roll walnut size balls and flatten them lightly. Bake for 10 min and check. Do not over bake.

Happy snow day!