Rosa’s Syrian Charoset
This is a delicious charoset recipe passed down from an Israeli family’s Syrian matriarch, Rosa, through generations. Though it is made with few ingredients, it has bold flavors. And, the use of lots of date paste creates a thick texture that is perfect to top the charoset onto more than just matzah (something I love to do :)). And, below the recipe are links to lots of my previous Passover posts. Chag Sameach! Continue reading
Very Berry Charoset
I created this charoset recipe to use one of my favorite flavor combinations, along with many of the dried berries and fruits I love, such as goji berries, barberries, cherries, elderberries and raisins. But, you could really use any combination of your favorite dried fruits. If you can make this in advance and let it soak overnight, the flavors become more pronounced and the berries plump. Continue reading
Roasted apple and yam with barberries
Like everything else, this is an unusual Sukkot. But due to my COVID routine, I have had the privilege for a deeper physical and sensory connection to the holiday’s harvest themes. It includes more time to tend to edible plants on my balcony and long hikes in woods filled with mushrooms and other edibles. And while the holiday celebrates an agricultural harvest, I like to more broadly think of it as a way to celebrate all of our food sources, whether foraged or grown on a farm. Last weekend, I went on a guided foraging trip just a few miles from my house. In a mere mile long walk, we found more than a dozen edibles, including black walnuts, shiso, sorrel, burr cucumbers, American persimmon, and turkey tail mushrooms. We nibbled little bits of each plant along the way but left everything there for birds and other creatures to enjoy. Continue reading
Rosh Hashana roasted carrots
As we prepare to celebrate Rosh Hashana to mark the birth of the world, it’s hard not to be confused and/or overwhelmed at times by the surreal world we are now living in. From COVID to wildfires to flooding to addressing systemic racism, our physical reality is forever altered.
The past six months have brought to the forefront of our daily lives both the devastating consequences of human actions that are the most un-God-like, but also the incredible, resilient, responses by humans to these crises. When we wish people a healthy, good new year, I cannot think of a time when this has ever meant more than now, for all beings.
vegan blintzes with extra filling.
Living through a pandemic has become the ultimate opportunity to look at our food sources and the interconnectedness between what we eat and a host of global issues.
More than 70 billion land animals are raised and killed each year for food and other products around the world, including nine billion in the US alone. Animal agriculture is the main cause of an array of global crises, including climate change, pandemics, water pollution, poverty and hunger.
Zoonosis, the transmission of diseases from animals to humans is, according to the CDC, the source of 75% of all new viruses facing humans. It is happening at a rapid pace because of how animals are raised and slaughtered, primarily in industrial animal agriculture factories and live “wet” markets. From the origination of COVID-19 at an animal market in China to swine flu at an industrial farm in the US to mad cow disease in the UK, the raising and killing of wild and domesticated animals is causing pandemics. Continue reading
Chocolate Olive Oil Passover Cake
I’m still the same as when I last wrote-focused on COVID19 most of the day and trying, like everyone else, to function as best possible. Beyond the obvious irony of living in a pandemic during Passover, how I will celebrate it this year has been hard (beyond simply finding holiday foods).
Vegan tahini hamantaschen
Purim Sameach! A quick post to share with you my new hamantaschen recipe-vegan tahini dough filled with pomegranate molasses-tahini-maple syrup-sesame seed mix. These are definitely not overly sweet and almost savory.
Simchat Torah–which starts Monday night– is the end of a long season of holidays and marked by both completing and beginning the reading of the Torah. But, we are not starting over in the same place with the Torah or in life. Rather, we are like spirals, moving into a new place that is deeply connected to the past. How will we understand or be guided by the Torah in this new cycle and year?
The foods of Simchat Torah usually elongated to represent the Torah scrolls or round to represent hakafot–the circles one dances in to celebrate the holiday. This year, I prepared a vegan zucchini quiche with lots of circles. It’s a great way to use up the season’s last bits of zucchini and is easy to prepare. There are many zucchini varieties and it would be interesting to try an assortment in this dish. Though, I perhaps should have made a dish with the super popular spiralized zucchini! Continue reading
Break-fast squash soup
Fasting is hard for me and I prepare by spending days whittling down meals, drinking an excessive amount of water, and gobbling as many nuts as possible just before the fast begins. I then struggle at break-fasts because there’s few foods that feel good in my stomach. Even if vegan, the pre-requisite bagels and cream cheese, cakes, kugels, cookies, and more feel like poison darts shooting through my now parched mouth and queasy stomach. I prefer to end the fast with fresh pressed juices, soups, and other gentle foods that are digestible and energizing as I transition my body back to heavier foods. So, to add to my options, this year, I prepared a butternut squash soup that is incredible easy to prepare, has minimal ingredients, and is satiating and filling (i.e. good for the tummy). Continue reading
Apple galette
As we reflect on our own behaviors of the past year during the High Holidays, we must examine the impacts of our food choices. We are living in a world that is experiencing the effects of climate change (1/5 of all greenhouse gas emissions comes from livestock for meat and dairy consumption), the unprecedented burning of the Amazon for livestock grazing and food along with the horrific treatment and killing of farm animals for food (including for kosher slaughter), dwindling freshwater sources and water pollution.
Though these global issues can seem overwhelming and daunting, we are living also in an incredible moment where we have the resources to help to solve these problems, guided by Jewish values and ethics. Judaism challenges us to live to the highest standards, including how and what we eat; bringing more humane and environmentally sensitive plant-based foods to our tables will reduce climate emissions, cut water consumption and protect animals. Continue reading
Neesh Noosh 