Summer Ades

Here are some things people think about juicing: it's expensive; it's messy; it's not as good for you as eating the whole vegetable or fruit that you are juicing; and above all else, even if it's "good for you" it tastes gross. 

While I can't say that I have held any of those opinions myself, I do understand why people are more drawn to smoothies than juices. Smoothies are creamy, sweet, filling, and for the most part do not involve things like parsely and kale. They are easier to philosophically stomach. Plus, you only have to clean a blender. But once you buy a juicer, and adapt to scrubbing pulp out of all its parts with a toothbrush, you may find your blender collecting dust in the corner and smoothies falling to the wayside.

Here are some things that I like about making fresh, organic juices at home: it's a great way to use oversized or overabundant produce (like carrots, cucumbers, apples, herbs); it's way cheaper than buying fresh squeezed or pressed juices at grocery stores or juice bars; you get several servings of fruits and vegetables in a single glass; you get to experiment and play with ingredients until you find the perfect combinations of flavors that you love so nothing is ever too sweet, too bitter, or gross. Plus my juicer has never popped its top while running at high speed, covering me and my kitchen in a pulpy mess. It's just not built that way.

Lastly, and perhaps best of all, it is an amazing way of essentially bathing your digestive system from the inside with minerals and vitamins. When you make a fresh pressed juice you remove nearly all of the fiber allowing your body to almost immediately absorb the nutrients and minerals from the ingredients you juiced and put them to use. This removal of fiber is one reason not to replace ALL of your vegetable and fruit intake each day with juices. You need fiber too. But adding a fresh pressed juice to your day will majorly bump up your vitamin and mineral consumption without adding tons of calories overall. 

I am an advocate for a green juice first thing in the morning so that no matter what else happens, you know you got some good stuff into your body. But I also love a quick, hydrating, sweet treat of a juice, especially in the summer months. I like to think of these juices (and spritzer) as gateway juices. They are simple to make, delicious to drink, taste sweet without being high in sugar, and don't even require a juicer. You can make them in the blender and strain them through a fine mesh sieve or drink them as a thick juice/thin smoothie to get the fiber content as well. I particularly love them after a sweaty workout or as an afternoon pick-me-up in place of coffee. Who knows, after a few weeks you may find yourself chucking a handful of kale in there too. 

p.s. check out some cool nutritional info on these ingredients below

*Note: It is always important to choose organic vegetables and fruits whenever possible and I think even more so when juicing. Think of it this way: do you want to bathe your organs from the inside with pesticides? Enough said.

Pineapple, Ginger, Cucumber Juice

about 2-4 cups pineapple, cubed

1 large cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks

1-inch piece of ginger, peeled

If using a juicer, start with the pineapple, then the cucumber and finish with the ginger. You always want to start with the softest ingredient and end with the hardest or most fibrous. There shouldn't be much pulp left over but if you really want a thin juice then pour it through a sieve into a glass. 

If using a blender, pour all the ingredients in at once, blend at high speed until liquified and strain (or not).

Watermelon, Lime, Mint Juice

1/2 seedless watermelon, cubed

1 lime, peeled and quartered
1/2 cup fresh mint

If using a juicer, start with the watermelon, follow with the lime and end with the mint. Strain or enjoy as is. This one is also really good over ice.

If using a blender, place watermelon and mint in the blender and instead of peeling the lime just cut it in half and squeeze both halves over the melon and mint. Blend at high speed until liquified. Strain (or not) and enjoy as is or over ice.

Apple Cider Vinegar Spritz
2 T Raw, unfiltered, apple cider vinegar
8-12oz sparkling water
juice of 1/2 a lemon
ice

No blender or juicer needed for this one. Just place ice in a large glass, add the vinegar, squeeze in the lemon juice, and top with sparkling water. 

What These Foods Do

Pineapple: Detoxifier, diuretic, helps cool the body when overheated, helps expel mucous, full of acids which closely mimic human gastric juices and which greatly aid in digestion.

Cucumber: Alkaline, cooling, diuretic, rich in minerals that neutralize acidosis in the blood, help dissolve uric acid accumulations (kidney & bladder stones), contains the digestive enzyme erepsin which helps digest proteins, very high in potassium which helps regulate blood pressure, aids in calcium absorption, high in vitamin A.

Ginger: Virtues extolled here

Watermelon: Some info here

Apple Cider Vinegar: When unfiltered and unpasteurized, contains up to 50 different nutrients, amino acids and trace elements. Helps counteract lactic acid buildup in the blood, is rich in potassium, helps alleviate joint pain, fluid retention, and sodium retention. Contains malic acid (from apples) which is a digestive stimulant. So basically, drink it daily. 

Spring Chicken Soup

Forsythia! Eucalyptus! Live Oak! Red Bud! Yes, it is spring time in California, less affectionately (and in an alarmist tone) referred to as ALLERGY SEASON (cue doomsday foreboding music). But seriously people, happy as we all are to see our surroundings brightening and blooming, many of us are also suffering a bit from constant symptoms of allergies which can bring on or just mimic the symptoms of a bad head cold. Old fashioned as it may be, there is nothing better tasting to me when I feel stuffed up and foggy than hot chicken soup. I don't quite remember when it entered her repertoire, but at some point my mom started making an Asian-inspired chicken soup with coconut milk, tangy kaffir lime leaves and that unmistakable laser-like citrus taste of lemongrass. 

This soup is packed with major immune boosters and a host of powerful digestive aids, expectorants, sore throat soothers, and other curative wonders described below. 

I have tried to recreate mom's perfect soup from memory a couple times with subpar results. Eventually I combined my memory of her soup and a Tyler Florence recipe. The result is near-perfect, though I have to say, when I am under the weather, nothing is quite as healing or comforting as Mama herself.

Coconut Chicken Soup

adapted from Tyler Florence on The Food Network

2 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1.5 lbs), cut into 1-2inch cubes

1 quart Organic chicken broth

1 stalk lemon grass, white part only, cut in half lengthwise

1 4-inch piece of ginger (or galangal) peeled and thinly sliced

1 Habanero pepper, de-stemmed and halved lengthwise

4 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed with the flat side of a knife

1 (13oz) can full fat coconut milk

2 T Thai fish sauce

Shitake and other mushrooms, halved (or quartered if large, about 10oz)

4 limes, juiced

a scant 1/2 cup of corn starch

1/4-1/2 cup coconut oil

3 scallions, chopped

chopped cilantro and basil to top

In a bowl, toss the chicken cubes with the corn starch until each piece is well coated.

Heat a pan over medium-high heat and let half of the coconut oil heat until fully melted. Working in batches, cook the chicken in one even layer, letting brown on one side before flipping it over with tongs. About 5 minutes on each side depending on the size of your chicken cubes. Place the cooked chicken on a paper towel-lined plate or sheet tray. You may need to add more coconut oil between batches.

In a large pot bring the broth to a boil over medium heat. Add the garlic, ginger, pepper, lemongrass, and mushrooms, cover, reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer for about 10 minutes to infuse the broth with the herbs.

Uncover, add the chicken, fish sauce, coconut milk and lime juice. Simmer about 5 more minutes until chicken is heated through.

Ladle into bowls and top with  chopped scallion, cilantro and basil, and maybe even a wedge of lime if you have extras lying around.

Foods That Bring the Fight*
Coconut Milk: A complete protein, chemically comparative to mother's milk, warming, thirst quenching, high in organic iodine which has laxative properties and soothes internal membranes.

Garlic: Antibacterial, antifungal, antiseptic, digestive, expectorant, detoxifier. As Dianne Onstad notes, "One raw crushed garlic clove contains the antibiotic equivalent of one hundred thousand units of penicillin."

Ginger: Antispasmodic, appetizer, expectorant, promotes circulation, helps stimulate and energize the body especially when fighting illness.

Lemongrass: Analgesic, digestive, helps relieve headaches.

Lime: High in Vitamin C, contains potassium, magnesium, iron. Antiseptic, helps sore throats, loosens mucus and stimulates lymphatic system, gall bladder and liver. Alkalizer (despite its acidic taste), destroys putrid bacteria in the mouth and gut, builds lung strength, encourages rebuilding of tissues.

Mushrooms: High mineral and vitamin content--particularly zinc, no sugar, general immune boosters, anti-cancerous, neutralize toxic buildup in the body.

*Onstad, Dianne. Whole Foods Companion (White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004) selected pages 

Butternut Squash with Coconut, Lime, & Pepitas

It is so spring-like in Sonoma these days. The air is warm, trees are in full blossom, and you can't go more than a block without seeing the unfailingly cheerful daffodils popping up, craning their necks, eager mouths turned towards the sky. All that said, I have yet to see a great outpouring of spring vegetables at the market and so I carry on enjoying the tail-end season of the wintry ones. Squash, I have learned of late, is a little discussed miracle vegetable. It is one of the easiest foods to digest, it is packed with potassium and vitamin A, and it is both filling and low in calories. It is a highly alkaline food and, according to Chinese medicine, helps reduce inflammation in the body. Butternut squash is a particular favorite of mine. I like that the texture is less stringy than some other winter squashes and you just can't help but feel great when you eat something that is naturally of that rich, orange hue. This recipe has all the grounding, warming elements of a winter dish and a brightness from lime zest and juice that lightens the flavors a bit as the days lengthen and the chill begins to thaw. 

Butternut Squash with Coconut, Lime & Pepitas

serves 4-6 as a side dish

1 large butternut squash, peeled, cleaned of seeds, and cut into 1 inch cubes

1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds *

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut**

zest and juice of one lime

3-5 Tolive oil

salt & pepper

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. 

Spread butternut squash cubes in one layer on one or two cookie sheets. Drizzle with about 3 T olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast until tender, about 25-30 minutes.

While the squash is roasting, toast the coconut in a dry, cast-iron pan over medium high heat, stirring occasionally until the coconut is fragrant and turning a light brown at the edges. 

Put the coconut in a bowl or on plate to cool and return the pan to the stove. Stir the pumpkin seeds, a pinch of salt, and about 1 T of olive oil together and toast the seeds over medium high heat until they brown and puff up. Remove from heat and sprinkle with salt. If you have space in the oven you can also do this in a small roasting pan while the squash cooks, about 5 minutes.

Combine the squash, coconut and pepitas in a mixing bowl. Zest a lime over the bowl, then cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice over the mix. Toss gently with your hands, taste and adjust salt as needed. You may want to add a bit more olive oil and lime at this point as well. 

Other nice additions include (but are not limited to):

cumin

chopped cilantro

raw scallion

diced jalapeno

I ate mine, as you can see, with sauteed rainbow chard and garlic.

* Pumpkin seeds are a valuable source of Omega 3 fatty acids and protein. They are high in both magnesium and zinc, help promote good circulation, and nourish and heal the digestive tract.

**Coconut is another powerful healing food. It is best digested with salads and cooked vegetables. It soothes internal membranes and has a gentle laxative property, making a great detoxifying aid. Dried coconut is made up of about 68% oil. Coconut oil has been used in Ayurvedic healing for millions of years and people all over the world still tout its powerful antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties, among many others.

Maggie's Salad

Last weekend I had the privilege of being a bridesmaid in my friend Bree's wedding. Let me just say, in all my years of working closely with brides and more recently, seeing friends get married, I have never seen anyone so completely unruffled by stress on her wedding weekend. From the second I saw her Friday afternoon, through the hung over post-wedding brunch she was nothing but smiles, beautiful and beaming and clearly having the best weekend of her life. It was a joy to witness. An added bonus to the whole event was the reunion of some of my closest girl friends from high school. Cliche as it is, it is all too true that it does not matter how much time has passed, we drop right back in like we never skipped a beat. The only thing that has changed is each of them has become even more brilliant, more accomplished, wiser and stronger, sharper witted and bigger hearted.

The bittersweet side of the weekend was that I had to say goodbye to my man for a month. Pete's alpine climbing excursions have become common enough that you would think I would be used to saying goodbye. But while it gets easier, it is never easy and I was grateful that after saying goodbye to him in my dear friend Maggie's apartment I got to turn around and fall into a long, tight hug, and the same steady shoulder I have leaned upon, literally and figuratively, since I was 15 years old. After the bender of a weekend and my rattled nerves at sending my love into the icy mountains of Patagonia, I wanted something comforting and nourishing and simple. Salad. I know. It doesn't seem like comfort food but it was. It was as green as a salad can get, (as green as this one, also written about as a comfort food of sorts), and packed with all the things I had leeched out of my body with the weekend's festivities. The salad in and of itself is nourishing and nutritionally pious, no question about it. But the most restorative, nourishing part about it was making it and eating it with Maggie, weaving in and out of conversations covering every aspect of our lives, present, past and future.

There is a lot of emphasis these days on the food going in to our bodies, the value of each individual component, but half the time the way we eat a meal is just as important--if not more so--than the virtue of the meal itself. It doesn't have to be fancy or even particularly inventive. Just made with love, shared with love, and eaten with gusto (and probably a good glass of wine).

I used half of the ingredients we bought and left the other half in Maggie's fridge. When I came home to California, to my empty house, I recreated the dish. While I was throwing it together I got a text from Maggie, "How do I slice this fennel?"  I sent her the answer and sat down with my own green bowl, feeling suddenly a little less lonely, knowing that sturdy shoulder was only a text message away.

Slice the bulb in half...

...and then in half again.

This salad has endless variations. You can use your own favorite dressing, add different green things, more green things, other-colored things.... I added raw pumpkin seeds to mine one day and a poached egg the next. The key, no matter what, is to chop your ingredients to roughly the same size so you get all the flavors and textures in each bite.

Maggie's Salad (serves 2 for dinner)

Two big handfuls of spinach (about 2 cups)

1/2 a small bulb of fennel

One avocado 

2-3 stalks of celery

a handful of basil leaves

half a small head of broccoli

for the vinaigrette

1/2 t raw honey

1/2 t dijon mustard

juice of half a lemon

salt

1/4 cup good, green tasting extra virgin olive oil

Wash the spinach well by submerging it in a bowl of water and lifting the leaves out so the grit settles in the bottom of the bowl. Spin dry and chop roughly.

Trim the fronds from the fennel (you can add some into the salad if you like), and slice the bulb vertically in half, and then in half again. Slice thinly.

Slice the celery the same thinness as the fennel pieces. I cut mine on the diagonal.

Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit. Using a paring knife, slice the flesh three or four times, top to bottom, and then five or six times side to side, making a grid. Using a large spoon, scoop and scrape the avocado out of the skin. Repeat with the other half.

Slice the broccoli head in half, top to bottom and chop the half you are using, roughly, into pieces around the same size as the rest of the veggies.

Stack the basil leaves on top of one another and roll them up like a cigar. Using a good sharp knife (a dull one will bruise it) slice the cigar in thin strips.

Put all the salad ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a small bowl whisk the honey, mustard, lemon juice and salt together until the ingredients are well integrated and there are no lumps of honey left. Slowly, in a stead stream, whisk the olive oil in. Taste and adjust the acid/salt/sweetness as needed.

Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently until everything is nicely coated but not drenched. You may not need all the dressing in which case you can store the remainder in a jar at room temperature for a week.

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