Sprouted Garbanzo Bean Salad

Well, I can't take all the credit for this because my lovely Israeli chef friend Carmit visited me and helped me with a tasting at Pure Yoga West and we came up with a take on this dish. I added a little kick to it for a Tasting Benefit I did for the Cooke Center in NYC http://www.cookecenter.org/

This salad is as Carmit says "Super Food-Super Engery filled" It's sprouted beans tossed with parsley, cilantro and mint over a bed of perfectly ripened tomatoes, and dressed with a tahini sauce.

You can buy a medley of sprouted beans or make them yourself. If you are buying them at a store (and most health food stores sell them), place them in warm water because they tend to be a little starchy. I toss the beans with loads of minced cilantro, parsley and mint, a generous amount of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Lemon.

The tomatoes must be delicious and not mealy at all - dice them up, toss them with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, sea salt and pepper and their organic flavors alone should burst in your mouth.

The Tahini Sauce brings everything together. Buy a good tahini : Al Wadi is easy to find and the best in the U.S., I think. Mix the Tahini with EVOO, garlic, lemon, and a lot of parsley - add a generous amount of sea salt and thin it out with H20. Overnight your tahini will become much thicker. This is a healthy and delicious option to use on sandwiches instead of Mayo or Mustard, on salads (www.ellapoe.com LOVED this) or as a dip. You can control it's thickness by adding water (or stock)!

This is a picture from the Cooke School event and it was a huge hit! Loads of people were excited to have a heathly nad delicious taste. My favorite comment was, "but this is so delicious and it's healthy!"

Just remember to taste as you're cooking... it's hard to screw up a recipe with all these fresh ingredients! And don't forget generous amounts of sea salt!

Gluten Free "Quiche"

A fun challenge that I have with my clients who have just had babies, is that they are on (1) specialized diets when breast feeding; (2) most want food that they can eat with one hand while walking around with their new babies; (3) everything must (obviously) be delicious and satisfying. I've tried so many fun recipes, my client yesterday up in Washington Heights (a beautiful part of NYC that I had never been to before) requested a gluten free quiche. I looked up recipes using gluten-free flour, but decided I would either make a frittata or egg "cupcakes" like little souflees in cupcake tins. When I arrived, I noticed a bag of baby red potatoes... I decided to try slicing the potatoes very thinly and lining a pie dish with the slices to form a potato crust. I roasted a bunch of asparagus (so delicious and in season!), sauteed some red onion added thyme, sea salt and pepper and goat's gouda (shaved) and then mixed my eggs. This client can't drink milk because it upsets her baby's stomach so I added rice milk. I mixed up my eggs, combined with the veggies, filled up my pie plats to the tippy top, but it on a sheet tray with a layer of water and crossed my fingers that the potatoes would form a crust.

It came out beautifully and Jillian offered me a bite because it was absolutely beautiful and as beautiful as it looked, it tasted fantastic.

So here's a simple gluten free quiche recipe:
8 baby red potatoes, sliced thinly (perhaps use a mandolin here) - save the round ends for roasting as a snack
1 bunch of thin asparagus, chopped into 3 parts, tossed with EVOO, sea salt and pepper and roasted (about 40 mins)
1 red onion, cut into a medium dice, sweated in EVOO with salt and thyme until soft (about 15 minutes)
12 farm fresh eggs + 1/2 cup milk of your choice - whipped with a fork until well incorporated

(1) Spray a deep pie with EVOO, starting at the outer rim of the pie plate, begin placing potatoes slightly overlapping to cover the whole bottom of the pie dish.
(2) Mix the veggies and eggs and cheese and gently pour into pie dish.
(3) Place pie dish on a sheet tray and pour about a cup of water in the sheet tray (enough so the sheet tray is covered)
(4) Make until slightly browned and cooked through (about 45 minutes)

Cooking all the components separately makes this dish intensely flavorful!