Refreshing zucchini and mushroom soup

The holidays are coming, and it's always a challenge to ignore the plethora of cookie recipes coming our way. Everything is about food this time of year. But the problem is, the advertised food is not of the nourishing variety. It's the kind that makes you feel lethargic, that gives you digestive problems, that prevents you in so many ways from being active. It's not the food I yearn to prepare or consume, and certainly not the food I'd like to recommend to others. And for the last time, I don't want to cook my way to "vegan holidays" with a mountain of soy! Generally speaking, soy sucks. To read why you too should stay away from soy, read Kimberly's article. And if you're a Tofu fan, make sure you're sitting down.

This being said, I still enjoy making vegetable soups even now when the weather is getting colder and the said vegetables are not so readily available. Soon we'll have to get creative with roots and mushrooms, the stuff of winter. But for now, as a last adieu to gloriously green zucchini, here is a delicious and versatile blended soup. You can tweak the quantities for any ingredient and the taste will be slightly different, but the duet of zucchini and mushroom is golden every time. You don't need a Vitamix to make this. Any kind of blender will do, and personally I prefer this a little chunky so I don't blend it completely smooth. This will take your mind off cookies and other evils for a little while, I promise.

Zucchini and mushroom soup

~ serves 4

4 zucchini, cut lengthwise and sliced in 1/2 inch half-moons

1 package (12 oz) crimini mushrooms

1/2 head cauliflower, cut into florets

1/2 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper, to taste

water or vegetable broth

fresh chopped parsley or cilantro for garnish

Heat coconut oil in a large pot over medium heat. Saute the mushrooms for about 5 minutes, until they start to soften. Add the zucchini, onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for another 3 minutes. 

Add water or broth just to cover the vegetables, and add the bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. 

Add cauliflower and simmer until the florets soften, about 10 minutes. 

Turn off the heat and blend the soup until you get the consistency you like. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with parsley or cilantro when you serve.

Recipe adapted from Clean by Alejandro Junger.

Post-Thanksgiving comforting sweet potato soup

Swamped with projects of all sorts, I've been remiss in sharing reports of my cookings. Shame on me. The cookings, however, have happened nevertheless. And lots of them! I am halfway through a cleaning diet that I plan to dedicate an entire post to, soon. It's worth it. 

Lately I have been doing my best to eat more meat (at least once a week) because I've been feeling my strength diminishing at the gym, and I thought a lack of protein might be the cause. Well that isn't it. It may be a lack of Vitamin D!

So with a view to Thanksgiving, when I'll undoubtedly get my weekly value of protein in one sitting alone, I tried to go totally vegetarian for a few days before the great feast. This cauliflower-sweet potato soup is very tasty, and garam masala plays an important role in its deliciousness, so if you don't have it in your pantry I suggest you acquire it right away. It's a wonderful spice that goes well with sweet vegetables (pumpkin, squash, sweet potatoes), and it's also inexpensive. Let this soup be your own post-Thanksgiving cleansing meal.

Post-Thanksgiving comforting sweet potato soup

~ serves 6 hungry ones

1 head cauliflower, cut into small florets

2 large sweet potatoes (or American yams), cubed

1 sweet onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

olive oil

garam masala, about 1/2 tsp

1 tsp Celtic salt

6 cups water

In a bowl, toss cauliflower with some olive oil until well coated. Place on a tray and sprinkle with garam masala. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes until it looks like this:

In the meantime, get a large pot, set it on medium heat and throw the sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, salt and water in there. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the sweet potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes or so. 

Add the roasted cauliflower. Then, remove from the heat and blend it until smooth with a hand blender. If you like chunks in your soup, transfer only half the soup into another pot and blend it, then return it to the pot and stir well. Reheat the soup if necessary.

Eat and be merry!

Recipe adapted from Manifest Vegan.

2-minute superhealthy avocado soup

The cold came over the city overnight, it felt. One day I stepped outside and it was in the thirties. It's getting harder to peel my eyes open every morning, and prepare to jump on my two-wheeled horse to step into the ear-numbing, face-biting air. Even though I look forward to the snowy outdoors and to Christmas, I find myself terribly nostalgic for summer. Besides, I'm not prepared to switch to my fluffy wardrobe just yet! At least one thing about this transition has me excited though: hot soups. I'm very enthusiastic about attempting lots and lots of soup recipes this coming winter. Something about a steamy bowl of vegetable potion is so comforting, and it always makes me think of home.

As a last homage to summer, here is a soup that's become one of my staples for anti-inflammatory action. This is served at room temperature - it's probably the last recipe of non-hot soup I'm trying this year. I've noticed that many of the foods I eat (and love) cause inflammation in my body. Normally I would just say so what, I'm not going to give up bread and cheese just for the whims of my cells. Except, I have noticed that some foods make my face swollen. Yes, seriously. And I'm not talking about a little "nobody will notice" kind of swollen, I'm talking about froglike, puffy eyes like I'm sick and haven't slept well in weeks. Spicy foods, bread and salt are some of my most uglyfying foods. 

Nobody likes to look Humpty Dumpty-faced, so - enter anti-inflammatory soup. Avocado in particular has many, many nutritional benefits, and one of them is its anti-inflammatory effect. There is an endless list of anti-inflammatory things you can eat for this purpose. But unless you make a habit of targeting those foods specifically, and avoiding the foods that have the opposite effect, you won't see much results because they will cancel each other out. This soup however is definitely a start in the right direction. It's also raw, healthy, quite tasty and of course, beautifying. Make this in a Vitamix or the blender of your choice.

Anti-inflammatory avocado soup

~ serves 2

1 large avocado or 2 small

1 bunch cilantro or parsley (cilantro is better)

2 cups sunflower sprouts, spinach or other wholesome leafy greens

1 cup chopped green onions

2 cups (16 oz) coconut water

juice from 1 lime

Throw everything into the blender and blend away! Serve immediately. Don't store this soup to eat later, because avocado becomes oxidized in time and the soup will not only taste funny, it also will have lost much of its healthy enzymes.

By the way: the site nutritiondata.self.com includes the inflammation factor (IF) for most food items. A negative IF is inflammatory, and the higher the number the stronger the effect (just out of curiosity, look up "bagel"). A positive IF means the food has anti-inflammatory effects, and the higher the IF the more anti-inflammatory the food is. Try to eat more of the foods with high positive IFs, such as avocado, papaya, ginger or turmeric.

Recipe adapted from The Facelift Diet.

Impossibly smooth pea soup

I recently bought a Vitamix blender. I consider it one of the best purchases I ever made. In fact, this photo hardly does this soup justice. The Vitamix is like the Ferrari of blenders. That thing will blend rocks! So obviously, that's how I prepare my Glowing Green Smoothie every morning, and it's also a whole new avenue of experimentation when it comes to blended soups, drinks or ice cream. Mine also came with an entire book of recipes and, leafing through it in the excitement of the moment, I found most of them easy and unpretentious. My favorite kind.

Peas are great for you, by the way. They contain not only lots of fiber, but also iron and vitamin C. Besides, peas have a lot of protein for a plant: 3/4 cup of peas contain 8 grams of protein, more than a whole egg. I like to heat up peas and saute them with minced fresh dill weed and a little butter, which makes a delicious side for any meat of your choice. This soup, though, is vegan and it's something else. I love peas, but this brought peas to another level of awesomeness. I had this soup both hot and cold and to be honest I was partial to the cold version. Sooo refreshing!

Blended pea soup
~ serves 4

1 quart vegetable broth
4 medium potatoes, each cut in 4
8 oz frozen sweet peas
1/2 shallot or 1/2 small onion, uncut
1/2 inch piece of lemon peel

Place 2/3 of the broth in a pot together with the peas, quartered potatoes, shallot or onion and bring to a boil. Simmer on low heat until the potatoes are tender (20-30 minutes). 

Then blend the mixture with the rest of the broth and the lemon peel. You can use a hand blender, regular blender, food processor or a Vitamix. You just might end up with a chunkier soup than I did, depending on the device you use. Blend about a minute or so, until you achieve maximum smoothness. Enjoy and thank me later!

Note: try this chilled, too. It will surprise you.

Recipe adapted from Vitamix Whole Foods Recipes.

Beautifying, glowing and going green, all the way

Last week I was talking about embarking on a new diet plan. Not a diet, but a solution! Sounds promising, right? Short story about how I got here: a couple of weeks ago I picked up a copy of Elle magazine from the Sacramento airport before boarding a plane back to Albuquerque. "We tested them all!," a title on the cover announced. "3 diets that really work." I flipped to the article out of sheer curiosity. Let's see what crazy things people are doing these days to lose weight, I thought. The first diet on the list was the Beauty Detox Solution, a nutritional plan created by Kimberly Snyder, a Certified Nutritionist whose knowledge and talent are touted by the creme de la creme of celebrities. Drew Barrymore and Fergie swear by her advice, the article said. So I rubbed my chin in deep thought. I was intrigued, not because the plan was recommended for weight-loss, but due to the favorable review by the Elle staffers: "I love that the focus isn't on counting calories or losing weight but on achieving glowing skin, shiny hair, and healthy digestion." Healthy digestion, eh? Gotta check this out.

So I remembered the name and the book, and a week later I picked up The Beauty Detox Solution from Barnes & Noble. It was their last copy, so I took this as a good sign - it must be popular. I read the book within a couple of days. It's not a heavy read, especially because Kim has a friendly instructive style and explains things very, very thoroughly. Her explanations also make sense, even if one is ignorant of the science behind them. 

For instance, one of the basic rules of the Solution is that fruit must be eaten only on an empty stomach. This was a blow for me, because I often have some fruit for dessert, instead of some starchy pastry or some sugary pudding. I thought this was the right way! But here's why it's not: fruits, according to Kim, are one of the most cleanse-promoting and nutrient-rich foods there are. But fruits also spoil at high temperatures and start to ferment. If we eat fruit after a substantial meal, we are queuing them up to be digested last, after the protein and starches from our main meal have been processed, which could take many hours. The chewed-up fruit will stand in line to be processed by the stomach at the 98.6 degrees inside our bodies. Now, that is a really high temperature to be keeping food. Not only will the fruit lose some of its nutrients while it's standing in line in there, but it will also start to poison our bodies as it starts to ferment. So that is why fruit should only be eaten on an empty stomach, and never after a meal.

Halfway through the book I started to really like Kim. And I decided that I would try to live the Beauty Detox way. It felt right. It also felt like a challenge, and I am always game for those. Unfortunately, in my pantry there are still items that Kim would disapprove of (mostly gluten flours - the Beauty Detox recommends gluten-free), and even though the book advises me to ruthlessly discard anything in my kitchen that's not a beautifying food (let's call these ugly foods), I am not one to throw away food. So little by little, I will try to phase them out by working them into my recipes in small quantities. This past week, for instance, I made a cranberry-banana cake with wheat germ that I didn't even get to take a photo of - it disappeared almost immediately it was so good! 

Here are some highlights of the week, in the spirit of Beauty Detox. Some of the recipes below are from Kim's blog.

This is the Glowing Green Smoothie, Kim's signature beauty drink. I watched Vince Vaughn talking about it on Letterman and then Dr. Oz drinking it on national television, so you understand how I absolutely had to make myself one. What is this concoction that famous people are praising? Well, it's definitely tasty, positively green and pretty filling. I am going to try to have this for breakfast every day for the next week. Stay tuned for reviews!

Ah, millet. The book recommends millet as a wheat substitute. To be honest, I'd never tried millet before. It looks a lot like white quinoa, but it has a softer texture. If you boil it enough and add lots of liquid, you get something that looks and tastes like mashed potatoes. This salad is Kim's recipe and contains olives, tomatoes, green onions, parsley (yet, this reminds me of Tabbouleh quite a bit!) and a delicious tart dressing. Very filling!

Home-made protein bars! Seriously awesome. Also one of Kim's recipes, these are creamy bars made of blended cashews with lime juice and other goodies. You get 10 grams of protein from just one of these small bars! If you like, you can substitute some other nuts for cashews. In fact, I just soaked some Brazil nuts to try a variation of the recipe. The process? 5 minutes to prep and blend, then freeze for 4 hours and ready. Mmmmmm!

Creamy cauliflower bisque - definitely in my Top 10 for soups! And although a blended soup with cauliflower and potatoes has a strong potential to be rather bland, the thyme and cayenne pepper in this one give it unsuspected, satisfying flavors.

cauliflower, 2 small heads or 1 humongous head, cut into florets

potatoes, 10 small (red) or 4 large (russet)

1/2 large onion

1 quart (32 oz) vegetable broth

1 cup evaporated milk (regular 2% milk or half and half will work too)

2 Tbsp butter

garlic, 2 large cloves, chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (ground)

1/2 tsp thyme (ground)

parsley, cilantro or green onions for garnish

cheese for garnish (I passed on this, because the Beauty Detox denounces dairy, but if you really like cheese go for raw goat's milk Cheddar)

For slow cooker: layer cauliflower, potatoes, onion, garlic, cayenne pepper and thyme in slow cooker. Pour in vegetable broth and add a little water to cover. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours.

Blend the soup with a hand blender or regular blender, until almost smooth (I like chunks). Return soup to slow cooker. Add milk, butter, salt and black pepper and stir well. Cover and cook for 30 minutes on high.

If you don't have a slow cooker, just follow the directions and simmer the soup in a large pot, covered, for about 2 hours on low heat.

To serve, garnish with shredded cheese and the greens of your choice.

Recipe adapted from The Soup Bible.

Transitioning meals

My new favorite soup for lunch: Spicy curried squash soup from Frank's RedHot. Seriously awesome!

All right, so I know firsthand how challenging it is to have a healthy diet. It seems the more I delve into studies and theories about nutrition, the more persistently I'm revealed that I've been doing it all wrong. Despite my diligent efforts to eat simply, to eat salads, to cut down on wine and coffee, there's always some new diet du jour, some new "detox" plan that suggests I'm still not doing enough, and that my diet should be further disciplined.

I like to look at restrictions as challenges. This is not always easy, though. I will admit that food is a significant comforting factor for me and the prospect of not being allowed (or rather, denying myself) my favorite foods after a long day's work is somewhat daunting. I associate foods with memories, so familiar tastes and smells for me have a healing quality. I could be sipping Turkish coffee out of a small espresso cup, and it could be raining outside, or my mind could be mired by work affairs, but I close my eyes and for a moment I'm no longer there. I've been teleported to a small sitting room in Bucharest, where my grandma is manhandling the buttons of the remote and my grandpa is reading the paper. And that sip of coffee can rescue a moment, however hopeless. When I'm teleported back, I'm peaceful.

So you see how it would be a real sacrifice for me to give up such symbolic foods. But I think that a serious diet, one that is meant to be embraced as a lifestyle rather than a brief detox program, must be forgiving. We have to allow ourselves the occasional slip in order to keep motivated and to stay on track. Indulgences offer so much more value and satisfaction if they become occasional treats. That is how I feel about chocolate, for instance. I remember a time, not too long ago, when I'd devour an entire Nutella jar in one go, right before the horrified eyes of my college roommates. There was no limit. These days I only go for dark chocolate, and only have a square or two as dessert. Not only is my stomach grateful, but I cherish a small bite much more.

I've bought a book that proposes a rather stringent diet plan. It doesn't advertise itself as a diet, but a "solution." So, a way to improve and maintain. A way to live. And because I want to give it a shot, over the past week I've tried to test out the principles of this nutritional plan to see how scary they are. The conclusion: not that scary. Certainly not if I can allow myself the occasional treat. Here are a few things I've prepared last week in preparation to engage in the Beauty Detox Solution.

First rule of the Beauty Detox Solution: Fruit should only be consumed on an empty stomach. For breakfast, watermelon, banana and grapes.

Snack: Avocado, cheese and tomatoes wrap on brown rice tortilla. This makes a great quick meal. Mash the avocado with a little salt.

Dinner: Omelet with basil, green beans, tomatoes and green bell peppers.

Two soups for studying

When studying for an exam, there's no better meal to have than soup. Soup is fitting to have in many time-pressing situations, but most of all on those occasions when you need to keep working and focused. It's not pretentious, it's easy to make and it will keep in the fridge for quite a while. If you are like me, and dread the disruption from studying that meals are, then you should seriously consider getting a cookbook for soups. I found such a gem at Barnes & Noble, on sale, and not being a fan of cookbooks at the time I quickly dismissed it. But curiosity pressed, and leafing through the book I discovered the recipes to be rather simple and the ingredients basic. So I bought it.

Ever since, I have been making soup as if to feed a restaurant. One of the things I love about soups is experimenting with spices. Being creative is great too and it can lead to glorious successes - but it can also lead to miserable failures. Following recipes, on the other hand, you learn about flavors and how spices work together. This is especially useful if you are a beginner and don't yet have enough experience cooking to have a knack about what goes with what. Also, following a recipe prevents you from committing serious catastrophes with very potent spices (such as the episode in which my otherwise trustworthy aide doctored an entire batch of black bean soup with two tablespoons of cayenne pepper - more on that in another entry).

For last week, I decided to make two very different soups, back to back. An hour and a half of cooking took care of an entire week's worth of lunches. I love that sort of project where I'm being very productive in a short amount of time. For the first soup, I thought about adding some meat for protein, but I also wanted it to be chunky and rich in vegetables. Turkey soup! I chose a slow cooker recipe because really, it's the easiest way to cook anything - just throw everything in there and leave for the day. By the time you get home from work, you have dinner ready. If you don't have a slow cooker, you can still make this by boiling everything together on low heat until the vegetables are soft but not mushy.

The idea for the second soup arose from my memories of Santa Fe at sunset, of New Mexican food and good company, of delicious vibrant green avocados in the summer. This is a refreshing soup made with fresh tomatoes and topped with cheese and avocados. If I'd grown up in Mexico (which, too often in my dreams, I have) this is what grandma would be cooking in her summer kitchen while the family would be sitting on the veranda, toasting apple cider and gulping down fresh bread with butter.

Santa Fe Tomato Chowder

1 Tbsp butter
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 can (16 oz) tomato sauce
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 ripe avocado, squared and scooped out
1 cup shredded goat cheddar cheese

Melt butter in large saucepan. Saute garlic for 1 minute. Add tomatoes and cook 5 minutes. Stir in 1 cup water, tomato sauce, corn, cilantro, cayenne pepper and chili powder.
Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Spoon soup into serving bowls. Top with shredded cheese and avocado pieces.
Makes 4 servings.

Recipe for Santa Fe Tomato Chowder adapted from Frank's RedHot.
Recipe for Simple Turkey Soup from The Soup Bible.

A post-gluten-free week

A lot of New Mexicans spend their Sundays at the mall. That's why it's hard to get a table at the Barnes and Noble Cafe. This is where the husbands sit while the wives, all done up, are oohing and aahing over this or that cute top, which they will continue to do throughout the afternoon. You can also find UNM students at the Barnes and Noble Cafe. Too poor to buy the books, they get a cup of coffee and browse the materials for free. Not a bad deal. In fact, most days I do the same. I am still a college student at heart.

Today started with a matin sauna session, where a couple of Spanish-speaking guys were talking far more than they were sweating. Since you can't do anything else in the sauna except stare at other less-clothed people, which nobody likes to do, I usually try to use the opportunity to meditate. Fifteen minutes to think about nothing but my breath. Since my chatty company of two banished any trace of peace I might have had coming my way, the whole experience left me rather peeved. So, this coffee I'm sipping at the Barnes and Noble Cafe better be conducive to meditation.

The post-gluten-free week was not as flamboyant as you might think. I made no pastries, no extravagant cakes, and aside from my signature whole wheat-sesame seed bread the only true brag-worthy thing was the goat cheese pizza with whole wheat crust - my best yet! So here they are, the week's best in pictures:

Last Sunday's breakfast was supposed to celebrate the end of gluten deprivation, but...

somehow it ended up being gluten-free too. Bacon and over-easy eggs and a salad of lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers on the side.

Monday, fajitas! We made this with deeply-marinated chicken, yellow peppers, onions and a side of brown rice. By the way, did you know that out of green, yellow and red bell peppers, the yellow ones have the most Vitamin C? Who knew.

This is my world-renowned whole wheat-sesame seed bread, toasted, with butter and rose jam. Yes, jam made out of rose petals! A fitting mid-afternoon pick-me-up.

 Wednesday's salad was so beautiful I had a hard time eating it. Tomatoes, cucumbers, red bell peppers, radishes, kale, green olives and goat cheese, with some olive oil sprinkled on top for glossy effect.

This smoothie is not for the faint of heart. Banana, raspberries, mango chunks (all frozen) plus raw protein powder and cocoa. Fruity, chocolatey and nutty all at once.

This West-African soup is a gem I found in The Soup Bible. It's made with sweet potatoes, chickpeas, tomatoes, onions, raisins and spinach. I drowned a big spoon of Israeli couscous in it and it really came together.

I sense you're not completely convinced of how wonderful this soup was, so here is another portrait. This soup grew on me with every bowl, I swear.

Pizza with whole wheat crust, goat cheese (instead of mozzarella), prosciutto, mushrooms and New Mexico's finest green chile. The bread maker helped me make the dough for the crust, which is half-white wheat and half-whole wheat. The cheddar goat cheese didn't melt as nicely as mozzarella would have, so next time I'll make sure to have some of that on hand. Overall, a winner. It baked in the oven for 25 minutes for extra crispiness.

Gluten-free week - the finale

Here we are, at the end of the journey. This is perhaps unexpected, but I don't exactly look forward to gluten-full meals. Is that strange? Having discovered that I can survive without gluten, I no longer feel a slave to bread and pastries as I once declared myself. Food is just fuel. We should eat the foods that nourish us and avoid those that harm us, whatever those foods are. Probably the key for the success of any cleansing diet is to take things lightly: don't go cold turkey, don't deny yourself treats and don't overindulge in forbidden foods once the cleanse is over. Be moderate, listen to your body and be kind to it.

This being said, I think gluten-free is something that everyone should try once. It's an experiment, and for many of us it will be an entirely new experience. I, for one, had never given up bread and cereal for any extended period of time before this. Maybe it will change the way you live. Maybe it will expand your knowledge of food and your palate. Maybe it will make you love cooking. Or maybe it will just give you something to write about. Who knows? Like any challenge, this could go anywhere.

To wrap things up, yesterday we went really simple with a brunch of breakfast and fruit and a dinner of soup and cornbread. Not too fancy. A fitting adieu to an adventurous two weeks.

For brunch, delicious buckwheat pancakes with butter and maple syrup. My favorite pancakes so far.

Pancakes go very well with fruit, did you know? Take a look at this very photogenic cantaloupe.

Dinner was innovative this time. We made a chicken two pepper corn chowder with soft goat cheese, our own invention. I was nervous, but... 

it was awesome. By the way: soft goat cheese in soup - brilliant!

The chowder didn't turn out as thick as it should have, because I kept desperately pouring broth into the pot. But it was all for the best, because I personally like more liquid in my soup. Plus, the goat cheese made it taste incredible. 

No respectable corn chowder should present itself without cornbread. This is the best version I've had so far: no sugar, no wheat, no milk, but rice flour, maple syrup and lots of olive oil.

Recipes for buckwheat pancakes and dairy-free cornbread.

Gluten-free week - day 6

Cooking doesn't necessarily have to be time-consuming, and it certainly doesn't have to happen every day. I remember when Grandma made a large pot of sarmale every Christmas and we'd have enough leftovers to last until New Year's - and that was a good thing too, because Grandma worked so hard on those things that by the time they were ready she swore off cooking forever (only to resume it a few days later).

A few years ago I visited a friend in Canada. I discovered that in his kitchen he had an entire line of oversize dishes, from huge Pyrex trays to pots large enough to boil a small child. He only cooked on weekends, I learned, and he made enough food to last him the entire week for lunch. It sounded brilliant at the time, and I was very jazzed to try out this promising avenue myself. But I was surprised by my own need for variation in food. Even if it's a decidedly delicious thing, I don't like to eat the same thing every day. To this day, I rarely cook something that lasts more than two days. 

So, yesterday the notorious soup was finished and so was the lasagna. An easy day, food-wise. This makes room for new and wonderful things to populate our plates. Stay tuned!

Nothing like a big fat cup of coffee in the morning.

For lunch, ginger-orange carrot soup again (mmmm), but...

...that was the last of it.

Lasssssagna with brown rice pasta and a glass of Merlot.

And a bowl of cantaloupe for dessert.

Recipe for ginger-orange carrot soup and lasagna with brown rice pasta.

Gluten-free week - day 5

Thursday for me is the godforsaken day of the week when I realize the week is almost over and I'm nowhere near reaching my goals. So I invariably panic, which translates into less time to write and less time to, well, cook. I usually get my wits together by Friday, so I am planning great feasts for tomorrow, and maybe even cookies for Saturday. For now, we still have oodles of soup and no one has so far honored the dinner invitation, so we are stoically doing most of the work...

The morning started well with a smoothie made of 1 banana, half a mango, 1/4 cup of blueberries, 1/4 cup of walnuts and 1/2 cup of rice milk. Especially when I'm rushed, I much prefer to drink my meal rather than chew it - right?

Come on, one more for the soup! This one's a classic already.

Lasagna with brown rice pasta and accompanied by a nice red Malbec. To be perfectly honest, by the time the lasagna was ready I was famished and even as I struggled to click the shutter for this photo I was positively drooling. So this isn't exactly an accurate rendition of an otherwise excellent dish. I'll try to do a better job next time.

Recipe for ginger-orange carrot soup and lasagna with brown rice pasta.

Gluten-free week - day 4

One disadvantage of preparing a large batch of food is that for the next few days you'll end up eating much of the same thing. And it gets boring, it really does. Not just for you, but also for the other dwellers of the house, who will repeatedly point out how much food you prepared, make dismissive gestures at you and complain relentlessly (asking Why don't you make your own damn food? will usually shut them up).

So yesterday was the second day of ginger-orange carrot soup which - as whimsical as it once sounded - once the initial excitement wore off is just a large pot of endless orange stuff. Who wants to come over for dinner, hmm? The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the tapioca chocolate pudding with coconut milk which was stellar and which entirely redeemed the bad reputation that tapioca acquired on the previous pudding-making attempt (somebody said it had the texture of mucus - yes, he actually said that as I was eating it).

Going gluten-free is definitely enlightening, and among the initial discoveries you will make is finding out that you can make flour out of things you never suspected. There are plenty of alternatives to wheat that lend themselves to making pancakes, muffins, cookies and bread. Almond meal and coconut flour are two of those brilliant inventions. Discovering almond flour is like discovering another continent. The first time I made pita pockets I felt like Columbus, opening the oven door onto uncharted land and sitting there in contemplation, filling my lungs with the aroma of promise. But enough reverie - the photos!

Eggplant salad, which also makes a nice eggplant dip if you shovel it with tortilla chips. The best way to make this is to roast the eggplant on the stove, which gives it a nice smoky flavor. My smoke alarm is very sensitive so I opted for baking the eggplant instead and it was very tasty even sans the smoky flavor.

Pita pockets from almond and coconut flour. The eggplant stuff worked great with these. With non-gluten flours you have to use a stabilizer for the dough to stick together and not crumble away. The pita pockets are made with egg, but for bread you can use xanthan gum or guar gum as thickeners - more on that later.

Yes, they make gluten-free beer too! This one is spiced with orange peel, which gives it a fruity taste. Reminds me of Kriek and the other Belgian fruit lambics.

The star of the day: tapioca chocolate pudding with full-fat coconut milk and topped with shredded coconut and bananas.

Have you seen enough of this soup yet?

Air-popped popcorn for dinner. If you are a veritable popcorn fan, I recommend getting one of these brilliant gizmos. No oil, no mess, and you can even add melted butter if you're so inclined. As to the popcorn, be smart and always buy it organic.

Recipes for ginger-orange carrot soup, pita pockets and tapioca pudding.