Kale Salad and Watermelon Gazpacho

It's been an incredibly busy month.  Travel to my husband's family reunion.  A visit from my step daughter and her boyfriend.  Lots of eating at places other than home.  Here are two recipes which have helped get me through the last month without a major dent in my diet.

My husband's family knew I was basically vegetarian but ate a little chicken and fish, but I was hesitant to ask then to also do non-gluten, non-sweetened, no dairy when they had to provide food for 60+ people for three days.  They did a great job on providing things that met all those by the way but because I was unsure, I decided to bring a dish to pass each day.

The watermelon gazpacho is a favorite of ours and was a big hit at our wedding last summer.  It proved to be a winner at the reunion as well.  It's perfect for a hot summer day.  This recipe came from our Whole Foods in West Bloomfield, Michigan via my friend Julie who kindly passed it on to me.  Amounts of everything can be varied to taste.  It's hard to tell just  how many cups of fruit are in a watermelon.  Since I hate to not use all the watermelon, I adjust the other ingredients accordingly.  It's a very forgiving recipe.

Watermelon Gazpacho

1 small seedless watermelon
1 small green pepper finely chopped
1 green apple peeled and finely chopped
1 red onion  finely chopped
about 2 or 3 T of cider vinegar
1/2 to 1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried basil or about 1 T finely chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper to taste

Puree watermelon in a blender or food processor. (Or if you're somewhere without the gadgets you may have at home, you can mash the watermelon with a potato masher.  It turns out somewhat chunkier but still does the trick.If you do this, you may want to chop the other ingredients a little more coarsely.)  Pour puree into a large bowl (or the hollowed out shell of the watermelon.) Stir in other ingredients.  Add the cider vinegar, chili powder and salt and pepper to taste.  This will make about 8 servings depending on the size of your watermelon.  Don't worry about extra.  It tastes great the next day!  You can serve it in the short, wide clear plastic cups at an outdoor event. They're much easier to handle than a bowl.  Add a sprig of basil for a decorative touch.

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This next recipe is one I've been getting a lot of requests to share.  When I decided to bring it to the family reunion the second day, my husband assured me I'd have it all to myself. (He's not a big leafy green veggie fan.)  Not so.  It vanished even more quickly than the soup.  This comes from Kathy Abascal's The Abascal Way Cookbook.  This salad has been a lifesaver for me.  Not only does it taste great, it keeps well in the fridge for a day or so and can make it through a day in an insulated bag with a small ice pack. I've taken it on many day trips as well used it for a dish to pass. I try to keep extra dressing in the frig at all times as well as a box or two of chopped kale to mix up for last minute changes in plans where I'm unsure I'll be able to find appropriate food.  Or when I'm just feeling lazy at home and want some "fast food."

Kale Salad with Tahini Dressing
 
1 bunch of kale (or use the cleaned and pre-chopped kale for a quick and easy dish.  I use a wonderful rainbow kale salad with grated carrot that I get at my local PCC store in Edmonds. It's a lighter kale than the curly kale but sturdier than baby kale.  In Michigan I used a mix of pre-cleaned and chopped baby kale and curly kale plus some grated carrot.) 
1 small carrot coarsely grated (Optional)

1/2 cup tahini
Juice of one lemon
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
2 cloves of garlic minced
2 T rice vinegar
enough water to make a thick but pourable dressing (about 3-4 T)
1 T tamari (don't add to dressing, sprinkle on once dressing is mixed with kale)

Clean and dry kale.  Remove ribs.  Chop the leaves finely.  Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.  Toss the kale with enough dressing to coat the leaves.  (I usually don't use all the dressing.  Store it in the frig for the next batch. Thin with a little more water if necessary.)  Toss with tamari.

Cool and Creamy: The Craving for Ice Cream

As I mentioned earlier, ice cream is one of my very favorite treats.  Gelato.  Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia, Peanut Butter Cup or Vanilla, Carmel, Fudge with a touch of sea salt added, Molly Moon's Strawberry or Beecher's Cheddar (yes, it is fabulous-especially with apple compote on top). Mmmm. There's something about the creamy coolness of ice cream and gelato that's hard to replace.

I'm not usually a big fan of kitchen gadgets and appliances but I decided in this case the investment in my health (and sanity) was worth it.  I bought an ice cream maker.  I found a nice, relatively small Cuisinart ice cream maker on the internet that got good reviews.  It cost about $64 including tax and shipping.  It's the kind where the bowl chills out in your freezer.  It does take up some room but you can put other things like bags of frozen veggies inside if need be.

I started looking for ice cream recipes with no sugar or sweeteners and no dairy.  Not so easy to find.  I found no dairy but sweeteners and no sweeteners but dairy.  I'm going to keep looking.  I'll let you know what I find.  But this new appliance was dying to be tried out so I had to come up with something quick.

My first foray into ice cream making was pretty simple.

So here's what I made up.  Not sure it fits the letter of the law on my diet but I think it's pretty darn close.

Pina Colada Ice Cream

2 15 oz cans regular coconut milk
1 8oz can crushed pineapple in its own juice (no sugar or syrup added)

Blend the coconut milk to thoroughly mix in the solids at the top of the cans.  Add the pineapple and juice.  Mix well.  Chill in refrigerator for several hours.  (I'm not sure you have to take this step but it make the ice cream process quick and easy.)

Place the frozen bowl onto the ice cream maker. (Don't take the bowl out of the freezer until right before you're ready to use.) Place in paddle and cover with top.  Start the machine.  Add the coconut pineapple mixture through the hole in the top of the ice cream maker.  Churn for 10-20 minutes until ice cream is the consistency of gelato.  (Two cans overflowed the bowl a little as the coconut milk froze.  It was a little messy but it worked.  If you have less than a 1 1/2 pint capacity or you want a little less mess, try it first with just one can and half the pineapple.)  If you want your ice cream firmer put it in the freezer for a bit.  This does get quick hard in the freezer.  I put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds on 30% power to soften it up a bit to scoop out.  If you do this though check frequently as it's a small difference between softening and turning into a soupy liquid.

It's not as sweet as some ice creams but the flavor is good and I find it satisfies my desire for something cold and creamy.

What's for breakfast?

Historically, I've never been a big breakfast eater.  As a kid, I was just never that hungry in the morning and dry cereal with milk just didn't do it for me.  Even weekend pancakes or french toast kind of stuck in my throat.  I'm horrified to admit that through junior high and high school my favorite and most common breakfast was a Hostess spice cake washed down with coffee loaded with sugar and milk.  Ironically, my mother doesn't drink coffee at all but her parents were big coffee drinkers and kind of got me hooked by flavoring my milk with coffee when I kept insisting that I wanted to try it.  As an adult, I was always rushed in the morning getting ready for work.  Breakfast varied from coffee and a bagel to oatmeal with walnuts and maple syrup.  Occasionally, and only on the weekends, an omelet with cheese and toast on the side.  Grain played a big part in my breakfasts.  Maybe it's my eastern European heritage.

So protein at breakfast?  Not really in my food repertoire.  But the last five days may have just sold me on it.  And not because it makes me feel good and keeps me from getting hungry (although it has) but because it is absolutely a delicious treat to wake up to.  By the way, both can be cooked in advance and re-heated in less than 5 minutes for anyone who is has minimal time to mess with breakfast in the morning.  Re-heating in no way diminishes either of these dishes.

Here are two of my favorites (both taken from the Abascal Way cookbook.)

This first one may sound a little odd, it did to me.  But it was a total and wonderful surprise.  The cabbage gets sweet and carmelized with just a little crunch and the eggs make for a creamy coating.

Eggs and Cabbage
1/2 head white cabbage finely shredded
1 yellow onion diced
small bunch of green onions, whites only, chopped
salt and pepper to taste


Cook the onion on medium high in a tablespoon of olive oil until it starts to get soft.  Add the cabbage and green onion and cook until the cabbage is soft but not mushy.  Make two  indentations in the cabbage and add a raw egg to each. Cover and cook until the white is set and the yolk is cooked the way you like.  I like my yolk runny.  I think it took about 5 minutes.  Check frequently if you don't want your yolk hard.

This makes enough extra cabbage for a second serving (in that case use four eggs).  Or even better save the extra cabbage for the next day.  I re-heated the cabbage on med-hi in a non-stick frying pan until it was slightly warm.  Then made two wells, added an egg to each, covered the pan and cooked until the eggs were done.  The cabbage got nice and browned and carmelized on the bottom.  The egg white mixed in a bit with it making it a little like a cabbage pancake on the bottom.  Today I ate this with a mild, fresh salsa.  Mmmm.

Quinoa Breakfast Cereal  (Quinoa is high in protein!)

1/2 cup quinoa (well rinsed until there is no trace of soapy suds around it )
1 cup water
Cocoa nibs (optional- make sure they are plain and not covered in chocolate!)
Coconut milk (the kind in the can)
Fruit in season (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, apricots, bananas)

Heat water, quinoa and cocoa nibs to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes or until water has been absorbed.  You can cook the fruit with the quinoa for a sweeter dish or serve it with coconut milk and fruit as a topping.  You can reheat the left over quinoa and top with fruit and coconut milk.

I made mine with about 1 tbs. Theo's organic cocoa nibs (purchased at PCC, our local food coop here in Edmonds, WA).  The nibs got soft and developed a smoother flavor as they cooked.  Nibs can be a bit bitter on their own.  I used fresh strawberries and coconut milk.  Fabulous!

Next time I'll try it without the nibs and use blueberries, almonds and coconut milk to top. 

The Diet (and a Recipe)

I'm realizing I haven't said much so far about what exactly this diet is that I'm following.  I almost hate to call it a diet, since so often people think of a diet as cutting down on the amount of food.  This is really a diet meaning a way of eating. 

For the last five days and the next few weeks, I've cut out all dairy, gluten (wheat, rye, oats, spelt, farro, couscous, bulgar, etc.), sugar, refined flours, dried corn products (with the exception of sprouted corn tortillas), all sweeteners, dried fruit, alcohol, peanuts and peanut products, all oils except for olive oil (the diet allows for some others, I just haven't found I've needed them yet.) additives, dyes and artificial anything, red meat (which I already wasn't eating), no skin on poultry while cooking (or eating), some types of seafood and fish.  Sounds like a lot, doesn't it?  But amazingly, my diet feels richer and more satisfying than ever. Although I will confess, it does take a little more planning and a lot more refrigerator space.

The idea is to eat twice as many fruits and vegetables every day as protein and grain.  Make vegetables more interesting and serve them as the center piece of the meal with protein and grain as the accents. You would have thought as a vegetarian for many years that would have been how I ate.  And yet in retrospect, I ate a lot more bread, pasta, cheese, yogurt and grain than I did vegetables and fruit.  Never really gave proportions much thought since I thought I was eating healthy.

The other big change for me was having to have protein at breakfast.  I'd have an occasional egg or egg whites but never ate any other kind of protein at breakfast since I didn't eat bacon, sausage or ham.  I've had to look for some new ideas for breakfast.  Luckily the cookbook that came with The Abascal Way book had some really great breakfast ideas and recipes.

This is just a brief overview of the diet, if you're interested in learning more, check out Kathy Abascal's The Abascal Way book and cookbook.  By the way, this is not an advertisement for this book or diet.  It's just one I read about at just the right time that seemed to make a lot sense to me.  The Arthritis Association and the The Diabetes Association offer similar recommendations for diet although I didn't find them as comprehensive as this one.

One of the things that's highly recommended is eating more leafy greens.  I like leafy greens but find they get kind of boring.  I never knew quite what to do with them which would make them interesting enough to eat regularly.  My favorite recipe so far came out of Sunset Magazine.  A recipe for Kale Chips.  These are truly wonderful.  Even my husband, an avowed greens hater, eats them and thinks they taste really good.  I like them even better than potato chips and they make a great substitute for popcorn.  I've been buying bunches of kale, and cleaning and de-ribbing and storing in the frig.  Then I can pop them in the oven when I want some without all the prep work.  Don't put the oil and soy on them until right before you pop them in the oven.  I use a big plastic bag to shake them up with the soy and oil to coat.

The key to these is to not over cook them and let them burn or they lose their flavor.

Soy and Sesame Kale Chips

Avoid crowding on baking sheets.  Keep an eye on them, they can scorch quickly.

1 bunch Lacinato kale (also called Dinasaur or Tuscan kale)

1 Tbs. olive oil

1 Tbs. soy sauce

1 Tbs. sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Rinse kale and thoroughly dry.  Tear leaves from ribs.  Tear leaves into 4 inch pieces.  Place in large plastic bag.  Pour in soy sauce and olive oil and shake well to coat.

Arrange leaves in a single layer on 2 or 3 rimmed baking sheets lined with parchment.  Bake, switching pan positions after 13 minutes.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake until leaves are crisp but not browned.  About 5-7 minutes more. 

Make ahead up to 1 week if stored in airtight container.

Options:

 Omit soy sauce and sesame and add ¼-1/2 tsp coarse sea salt to oil.

Omit soy sauce and sesame.  Add ¼ -1/2 tsp coase sea salt and ½ tsp coarsely ground pepper to oil.  After chips bake 13 minutes, sprinkle evenly with 3 Tbs. grated parmesan or 3 Tbs. of nutritional yeast.  Continue baking as before.

Enjoy!