We, Israelis and Palestinians love our lemony tahini. We eat it for breakfast with our omelets, frittatas or shakshuka; for lunch with falafel or sweet potato boats; and for dinner with roasted cabbage, sweet potatoes or cauliflower. My family and…
I don’t have anything too interesting or fascinating to tell you. Not much is happening these days. The highlight of the previous week was our visit to Underwood Family Farms, in Moorpark CA. When the boys were little I took…
Eggplant lovers, jump to the recipe. Eggplant haters, bear with me for a second. I have a story that might help you see eggplants in a different light. As a child, I was disgusted by eggplant dips or fried eggplants,…
I fell in love with cooking when I started to cook without recipes. When I let my intuition tell me what to do with the ingredients I have in hand. I would take the vegetables out of the fridge or…
I googled the history of lentils and found out a few interesting and fun facts.
I don’t know about you, but I always associate the word Turkish with good food – even when people bring up Turkish prisons, Turkish Coffee or the Bride from Istanbul. Unfortunately, I’ve never been to Turkey, but it’s on the top…
I love to treat vegetables like meat. The other day I was curious to see what would happen if I pretended that a bunch of roasted golden beets were raw salmon. I somehow knew that they would resemble cured salmon…
There are so many ways to include vegetables in your meals. The most exciting way, in my opinion, is to make a bunch of mezes /tapas /small plates for dinner instead of a typical main dish-side-and-salad dinner. This is a…
I don’t know whose idea it was to infuse oil with spices but it’s a good one. My Moroccan grandmother and mother always kept a jar of oil infused with paprikas in the fridge. My mother infuses canola oil with…
I adapted this brittle recipe years ago from My New Roots cookbook. Before the pandemic I used to make it on a weekly basis. I put it in my boys’ lunch bags. It’s gluten-free, grain-free, vegan and refined sugar free…
In my family and Homeland we have a lot of respect for vegetables. They get as much or more attention than meat. Almost every restaurant has at least two or three or more types of interesting and delicious vegetable dishes.…
My husband is ¾ Hungarian and ¼ Polish. His mother didn’t cook Hungarian food but his grandmother did. She was a good cook. I did get to eat her food and baked goods but never this dish. My mother in…
Once you’ve got the hang of how to make bread dough, you should play with it. Add different seeds, herbs and/or nuts. Shape it into a loaf or ball, rolls, challahs or simple flatbreads, which you can then slit with…
Here is another recipe you can make with oranges or blood oranges beside orange madeleines and caramelized oranges. I thought about making my grandmother’s orange salad with black olives but the boys wouldn’t like it. I decided to make my…
When I was a kid my mother used to make this hummus (chickpea) soup on a weekly basis during the winter. It never snowed in the Negev, the desert of Israel, but it did get bone-chillingly cold. I’ve always said…
If you’re looking for plant-based, filling mains to keep you warm and cosy, and healthy of course, here are our favorites. Those which my boys love as well (except for the slow roasted eggplant).
My friend introduced me to this mezze. It’s her Kurdish Iraqi grandmother’s recipe. We love it, including our 13 year-old Alex. Serve it with 2-3 other mezzes or sides such as turnip hummus, roasted sweet potatoes, and carrot & harissa…
The first time I discovered the combination of fruits and rosemary was at Sage, a vegan bistro in Silver Lake. Until then rosemary was something that I used mostly in potato dishes, breads and crackers. Its piney wooden flavor is…
Sfenj (or “Sfinj”) are Moroccan sufganiyot / donuts / beignet. Of all the sweet fried doughs, Sfenj are my favorite and the least harmful. The dough doesn’t contain any butter or milk, and has only 2 heaping tablespoons of sugar.…
Every year my American friends are in charge of the traditional dishes while I am in charge of the plant-based sides or mains. These recipe are simple but festive and very impressive. Click on the caption for the recipes.
