LAVC Cooking Class

Hi everyone, Next month I will be teaching a cooking class – “How to cook simple, delicious and nutritious meals” – at Los Angeles Valley College. If you’re from Los Angeles please join or forward it to a an Angelino…

Olive oil Anise Cookies

The Spanish anise and sesame cookies, tortas (cakes) de aceite y anís are very similar to reifat, the Moroccan anise biscuits I grew up on. The flavor is almost the same but the texture and shape are different. My ancestors…

Creamy Chana Masala 

Vegan-boy wants chana masala. Teenage-boy prefers something with Korma sauce. Helicopter-dad doesn’t care. He’ll eat anything. Although he prefers to avoid chickpeas. They make him gussy. Neurotic-mom is up for Indian but not korma. It’s too sweet for her. To…

Crushed Ginger & Garlic Cubes

Teenage-boy craves Indian curries every day. His mom loves Indian food but hates peeling and grating ginger and garlic. Sometimes she asks teenage-boy to do it for her or cook for them. He is usually up for it. But most…

Vegan Chocolate Bar Topped With Granola

Vegan boy complains that there’s nothing sweet in the house. He threatens to go to CVS to buy candy. Neurotic mom says “Wait! Don’t go, I’ll make something”. Quickly she melts a bar of Trader’s Joe’s 72% dark chocolate and…

Roasted Cauliflower With Yogurt & Cilantro

Summer you’re hot, toasty, sweaty, smelly, draining yet I miss you in the winter, welcome you with open arms in the spring, then bitch about you when autumn is around the corner.  Here is something to make summer cooler and refreshing.

Seed & Seaweed Crackers

Some people on instagram got upset that I called a non-dairy cheese cheese. Well a) what am I supposed to call it? and b) don’t they have other things to get upset about? I adapted this recipe from Everyone’s Table…

Tahini Dip with Tomato

Although I grew up in Israel and was familiar with tahini, I never forgot the first time I ate tahini as a dip and not as the sauce that moistens your falafel in pita (and makes it easier to swallow).…

Potatoes & Sauerkraut Stew

I started to have a blast in the kitchen when I felt comfortable improvising and cooking without recipes. Now don’t get me wrong, I love being tucked in bed with a good cookbook or discovering a great recipe online but…

Lentils cooked with Eggplant & Tomatoes

I googled the history of lentils and learned a few interesting facts about them.   Man has been eating tiny dried lentils practically since the beginning. Wow, really? I wonder how my ancestors knew they were edible. By 6000 B.C.,…

Smoky Eggplant Dip

My favorite meals are those vibrant dinners which are assembled from a bunch of dips, sides and small plates instead of ordinary main dish-side-and-salad dinner. We eat like that everyday but it never gets boring because they are colorful and…