August 9th, 2015
Paloma and I made it back home after our nearly two month stay Russia. We spent some quality time with family and friends in my home town, where Paloma took a few classes and got a chance to polish up her swimming, gymnastics and piano skills. The teaching style in Russia is quite different than back home – a lot is asked from the children, and the teachers are quite serious. Paloma didn’t seem to mind and actually had a few important breakthroughs. After all that hard work we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Sochi, swimming in the beautiful waters of the Black Sea (more on Sochi in the next post), hiking in the Caucasus Mountains and wandering around the Moscow center.
Back home in Florida, we still have a bit of time before school begins, to look at the hundreds of pictures we took and share the adventures with our friends over here. I keep a little dish of multicolored glass, polished by the sea, speckled pebbles and shells close by on the counter, to keep reminding myself of the most magical moments of this summer.
Below are a few favorite photos from our travels, starting with the said pebbles.
Caucasus Mountains in the summer.
One of the dozens of the ornate subway stations in Moscow.
Perlov Tea House, a beautiful tea shop and a historic building in Moscow.
One of Stalin’s high rises captured from the Moscow River.
It always takes me some time to adjust to the food here when coming back from the other side of the Atlantic. After eating all the juicy berries, wild mushrooms and my mother’s delicious Russian cooking, it’s hard to find things to be flavorful here, at least for the first couple of weeks. I do crave lots of vegetables and big salads.
This simple daikon pasta was the first dish I cooked back home, satisfying my veggie cravings. In two months without many eastern flavors, I forgot how delicious ginger and coconut milk are. The corn is also sweeter here in my opinion. This was my first attempt at cooking vegetable noodles like pasta – boiled in a pot of salted water – a method I’ve been curious about for a while. I loved the resulting neutral flavor and the noodle texture did resemble very delicate angel hair.
Daikon Radish Pasta with Corn and Tomatoes in Creamy Coconut Sauce
1 medium to large daikon radish
2 ears of corn
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced ginger
2 teaspoons sriracha
1 tablespoon lime juice
sea salt
1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
2 tablespoons tamari
1 tablespoon smooth almond butter
1-2 handfulls heirloom cherry tomatoes – quartered
handful of basil leaves – torn
microgreens to garnish – optional
1. Cut kernels off the corn ears and set aside.
1. Set a medium pot with salted water over high heat. Peel and cut daikon into noodles, using a juliene peeler, veggie peeler or mandoline. When the water begins to boil, add daikon noodles and cook for 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Warm coconut and sesame oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add ginger, sriracha, lime juice, pinch of salt and corn, saute for 3-5 minutes.
3. Add coconut milk, tamari and almond butter, stirring to incorporate until creamy and hot. Add daikon pasta, cook for another 3 minutes, letting all the flavors combine.
4. Turn the heat off, add tomatoes and basil. Serve immediately.
Tags: basil, coconut milk, corn, daikon radish, pasta, tomato
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April 20th, 2015
Chances are, you’re familiar with mung bean noodles, some clear and some ghostly white, that can be found in abundance at Asian markets. I’ve always been fascinated with the simplicity of their ingredients list, which typically includes only mung beans and water. Making pasta at home has become somewhat of a hobby for me over this past winter, and I was determined to nail down this healthy, protein-rich mung bean version.
The first attempt, which involved just grounding mung beans into flour without sprouting them, resulted in pasta with too beany of a taste that I wasn’t satisfied with. I noticed long ago that sprouting grains and garbanzo beans improves the taste of the resulting flour, so I decided to sprout the mung beans for this pasta as well. My next attempt, made of sprouted flour, was much better and mild tasting, but included eggs, and I didn’t care for the texture.
When I was ready to give up the idea, I bumped into the possibility of using psyllium husks as a binder in gluten free pasta. I gave them a try and it turned out absolutely amazing – a nicely pliable, flavorful, freshly-made pasta, that is very light and gentle on your stomach, and quite easy to make once your flour is ready.
I haven’t tried this yet, but I’m pretty sure that other types of gluten free flours such as quinoa, buckwheat, etc. will work great in this recipe as well.
It may seem like a lot of work to make such flour at home, but in reality what you will mostly have to do is wait until beans sprout and dry. If the process is not for you, however, there are several companies that make sprouted flours and my latest favorite is Blue Mountain Organics. Our local health food store carries and array of their flours and they are not only delicious, but also less expensive than regular flour. For this post, I prepared the pasta with peas and spinach to celebrate spring, but it will work well with your favorite homemade tomato sauce or any other pasta toppings. Happy Spring!
Sprouted Mung Bean Pasta
adapted from here
Serves 6-8
1 tablespoon psyllium husk powder
1 cup sifted sprouted mung bean flour (see below), plus more for rolling out pasta
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more for salting water
2 tablespoons coconut oil – 1 tablespoon melted, divided
3-4 cups baby spinach leaves
2 cups fresh or frozen peas
splash of canned coconut milk – optional
freshly ground black pepper
grated Parmesan – optional
1. Mix together psyllium husk powder and 4 tablespoons filtered water in a small bowl. Let thicken while mixing together dry ingredients.
2. Combine flours and salt in a large bowl, mix to combine. Make a well in the center, add 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil, gelled psyllium husk and 4 tablespoons of water. Stir to combine with a fork as much as you can. The mixture will appear dry, but don’t add more water at this point. Begin working with your hands, mixing and kneading the mixture into slightly sticky (but not wet) dough. Add more water, one tablespoon at a time, if you find that it’s absolutely necessary, or more flour if dough seems too wet.
3. Divide the dough into 4 equal parts, keep them wrapped to prevent drying.
4. Working with one portion at a time, roll out on a well floured surface into a paper thin thickness. Cut it into pasta of any desired shape using a pizza cutter or a sharp knife. Sprinkle with more flour to prevent from sticking (the same sprouted mung bean flour or brown rice flour will work great for rolling and dusting).
5. Divide the pasta into two equal portions. Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil and cook one portion of fresh pasta at a time for 2 minutes, until al-dente.
6. Meanwhile, heat the remaining coconut oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add half of the spinach, sprinkle with salt and stir to coat. Drain pasta reserving about 1/4 cup of cooking liquid. Add pasta, 2 tablespoons of reserved liquid and splash of coconut milk (if using) to the pan with spinach, stir until spinach is wilted, for a minute or so. Add half of the peas, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper, stir them in and remove from heat.
7. Serve immediately with freshly grated Parmesan if desired.
Note: You can continue cooking the other portions of pasta in the same manner or keep the remaining dough wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Remove from refridgerator to warm up 15 minutes prior to rolling.
Sprouted Mung Bean Flour
1. Rinse 2 cups of mung beans and place them in a large bowl covered with filtered water, soak overnight.
2. Drain and rinse again, cover with wet kitchen towel and leave to sprout. You should see white tails in 24-48 hours. Make sure to rinse every 8 hours and keep the towel damp. For the purpose of this flour, sprouts don’t need to be large and thick – tiny white tails will be sufficient.
3. When you are satisfied with the look of your sprouts, rinse them thoroughly, drain well and shake off water excess as much as possible. If you have a dehydrator, spread sprouted beans on mesh screen covered trays and dehydrate at 115 F until completely dry.
4. Alternatively, spread on a dry kitchen towel or paper towels and let dry for 24 hours, change towels to dry ones after the first 8 hours. Spread on a baking sheet and continue to dry in the oven at the lowest temperature for a couple of hours, until completely dry.
5. Grind into flour using a high speed blender, mill or coffee grinder (in batches). Sift through a fine mesh strainer.
Tags: gluten free, mung beans, pasta, peas, spinach
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November 27th, 2012
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
I always crave for light meals after the holiday, do you feel the same? There were many amazing dishes on our Thanksgiving table, but all I can think about now is simple, clean food like these butternut squash noodles.
I’ve always had a weakness for raw butternut squash, snacking on it when preparing it for roasting. It becomes even more delicious when thinly sliced with a spiralizer into a sort of spaghetti. I also love the tartness of fresh cranberries that are widely available this time of year, but of course you can use dried ones instead. The creamy almond butter sauce brings everything together and adds some nice winter spices.
Thanks so much for all your comments and support about the book. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Butternut Spaghetti
(serves 4-6)
1/4 medium butternut squash
1 apple – peeled, cored and sliced into a matchstick shape
two handfuls shredded Swiss chard or other greens of choice
1/2 cup fresh cranberries
Almond Butter Sauce
1/2 cup almond butter
3/4 cup purified water
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
seeds of 1 cardamom pod
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
Peel and seed the butternut squash. Using a spiral slicer, cut it into spaghetti noodles. In a bowl, combine it with apple slices, greens and cranberries. In a blender, combine all of the sauce ingredients until smooth. Add to spaghetti, toss to coat and serve.
Tags: almond butter, butternut squash, cranberries, pasta, recipe, salad
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