Soup from Squash

So what if it's summer? It's time to make soup and roasted vegetables. There are so many amazing things at the farmer's market here in Göttingen. There is a very popular kind of squash-like pumpkin which is ubiquitous. I bought some last week, cut it in half and roasted it cut side down in the over at 200 C for about half an hour. Served this with pasta-and-tomato-sauce and a salad for some friends. Very easy and delicious farmer's market dinner.

Today I'm going to make some kind of golden-lentil soup using one of these pumpkins. (I roasted it yesterday, scooped out the insides and then put them in the fridge to wait for me to be motivated.) I think I tried something like this earlier in the spring, combining aspects of a lovely recipe for Moroccan lentil soup (from my Canadian friend Carrie who has sadly since left Gö) with some sweet potatoes added.

I haven't made it yet, but I plan on it being delicious.
It will include:

Ginger, Garlic, Onions, minced and sauteed in Olive Oil until soft
Coriander, Cumin, Turmeric and Cayenne and a Bay Leaf added to this and sauteed also for 1/2 a minute or so
(Garam Masala could be used instead of the Coriander and Cumin)
One can of whole, organic tomatoes (plum tomatoes or anything good)
Some yellow lentils and water - choose the amount at your discretion.
When the soup is boiling and lentils are starting to get fluffy I will add the pre-cooked pumpkin/squash
Don't forget to add salt, at the beginning, middle and end (just a little at a time)
Add more water if it seems too thick and lentils aren't done cooking.
When lentils are totally soft, it's done.
Then I'll use my immersion blender (a happy gift to myself for breaking my jaw!)
to make it smooth. Why is smooth soup so much more tasty? It really is.

Love,
Naomi

On The Mend

I guess breaking my jaw really distracted me from eating and cooking for awhile. It distracted me from a lot of things, as I had to cancel some shows I was really looking forward to, and couldn't sing much in others. But when I did finally get those awful plastic-metal braces off (most horrifying experience ever!) and was allowed to open my mouth in any direction I could think of, I was most excited to get back into singing and playing music, and into eating apples and salads and things that were not cooked or blended!

At the same time that I am now relishing the ability to bite into a sandwich or a piece of fruit, I have a new appreciation for blended foods. I lost several pounds during my healing, and that felt good. It felt good to eat minimally. Aside from being limited in what I could consume, I just didn't want to eat as much because I'd have to clean my braces and teeth so carefully afterwards. Also, I started getting full more quickly, probably because what i consumed was of a higher water content than normal. I had smoothies, coffee, juice, soup, and more soup. And ice cream.

My mom came to stay with me for a week after I got out of the hospital. I felt pretty weak and injured but she helped me to heal by being so excited about how beautiful Göttingen is. We took careful, slow walks all over the place. And we both decided that the liquid diet has got to be the best way to lose weight fast: only eat blended or liquid foods! It's pretty nice, actually. I started to feel more healthy than I have for a long time. (Eating ice cream every night isn't my ideal vision of healthful living, but I needed a few extra calories, I guess; or I just felt sorry for myself and wanted a treat.)

Now, four and a half months after breaking my jaw, I can eat anything again. But I also feel less excited about cooking and preparing food this summer. I think it's because life has felt sort of chaotic and all-over-the-place. We went to the U.S. for three weeks, I brought my cats back with me, I'm preparing for a month-long tour in the UK and learning to be a "Business English" teacher on the fly in the meantime. I feel distracted and unfocused. And I gained back some weight!

But being conscious of nourishment, nutrition, food and general health always makes me feel stronger and more able to focus on accomplishing things that are meaningful to me. So I think I'll try to do this again. I'm going to start writing about food and health here, whether or not anyone is reading!

Don't Change Horses In Mid-Stream

After I fell off my bike 2 weeks ago, flying over the handle-bars to land with most of my weight on my chin on the sidewalk, breaking my jaw in two places, requiring surgery on one side and a 7-day stay in the hospital, I had some time to wonder "why" this happened.

I was in shock, and so annoyed, worried, and scared. I couldn't believe that an ordinary day turned into a life-changing one so quickly. Trying to figure out what went wrong (I guess I believe there are lessons to be gained from every thing that happen), this phrase came into my head, "Don't Change Horses in Mid-Stream". I think the phrase is actually don't change courses in mid-stream, but I like to imagine jumping off one horse and onto another while both are running fast down a hill. Sounds like a bad idea. So it was, apparently, a bad idea for me to switch from the street to the sidewalk on my bike that afternoon, even though the curb I attempted to ride over was so small, only an inch or two high!

Now I find myself stuck on a no-chewing diet for 6 weeks (2 done, 4 to go), and so I haven't been cooking like I used to. But I have learned a few things about how to get variety and nutrition from pureed and liquid food. Here are some ideas, and maybe some other broken-jaw sufferer will find this!

BREAKFAST:

Most mornings I have been making "Frappe". (Rhymes with "Crap".) This is a recipe my mom discovered somewhere many years ago. Simply put one orange, one banana, and one apple in the blender. Blend. That is a frappe. It is delicious, and thick, so best eaten with a spoon. Lately I've been adding soy milk and cinnamon and often some ground flax seed to the frappe for my breakfast. Other fruits such as strawberries can be added as well.

Baby cereal! I think oatmeal or any other cooked cereal could be blended with milk or soymilk to make a drinkable breakfast. I haven't tried making real cereal yet. But I did try something extremely delicious and decadent and comforting: I bought a package of instant baby cereal. At the grocery store here in Germany there are so many kinds, made with millet, oats, spelt, wheat, and other things I don't know the translation for. I bought some millet cereal, which when added to hot water makes an instant, smooth and creamy cereal which is basically liquid. I added some dark-brown beet syrup (the Germans use it a lot and it is high in iron--can be substituted with Molasses, but the beet syrup has a less metallic taste) and salt and this was very good!

LUNCH-DINNER:

Blended Soups:
I bought myself an immersion blender the day I got out of the hospital. I'd always wanted one anyway. It seems that blending soups really enhances the flavor of certain ingredients. It is fun. I had a variety of fresh, organic vegetables in my refridgerator which had been there for a week, since the day I fell from my bike. So on my first evening home, I made a soup using everything in the fridge. I had some bell peppers, which I roasted in the oven first. Everything else I just chopped (or my mom did, actually), placed in a pot with some olive oil. I sauteed the veggies a bit and then added water, covered and cooked. There were endives, carrots, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, maybe some cauliflowers, and the bell peppers. I can't even remember what went into this soup, but it was delicious when we blended everything together after it was all cooked. Later in the week I used a different random selection of vegetables, and this time I started adding greens at the end, just before blending. I added a huge bunch of rucola (arugala), and fresh parsley and scallions. Delicious, and nutritionally, it's the closest thing to salad I can have!

I highly recommend this relaxed way of making improvised soups. Throughout the week I cooked some white beans and some brown rice, and some lentils. Each day when I heated my soup I'd add some amount of one or two of these extra ingredients, and always (I'm addicted to green soup now), some scallions, parsley and other herbs, or even baby lettuces just before blending.

Black Beans-N-Spinach with Roasted Sweet potatoes

Creating this blog has made me wonder whether my meals are all too similar. They are definitely related anyway. I almost never make anything the same way twice, but since I use the same stock of basic ingredients, it often tastes rather similar...maybe. I like the way my food tastes though, and I am trying to keep things simple, and healthy.

But I do have the desire to try something a bit more exotic sometimes. For example, this weekend my friend Noriko (from Japan) took me to the Asian food store here in Göttingen which she prefers most, and she showed me what she buys. I was particularly excited that the Japanese curry she gets there is the same one my brother's Japanese friend in Boston also used to buy for us. It is delicious. The store Noriko and I went to this weekend is well stocked with many varieties of sauces, noodles, rice, spices, wines, vinegars, pastes, Indian and Thai as well as Chinese and Japanese....It's pretty wonderful. I bought some wasabi paste because Noriko was buying some and said she puts it on everything. I love wasabi and hearing that a Japanese girl puts it on everything someone made me feel it would be good for me to do so too (great news!).

Now, unrelated to this discussion is the dinner I made last night. The rice and roasted sweet potatoes weren't very unusual, but the black bean and spinach mixture was something I never tried before in quite that way. I improvised as I went along. I like the combination of black beans with sweet potatoes, and of sweet potatoes with something dark green, like kale, spinach or broccoli. And I had all of these ingredients at the house. So here is what I made:

First, took advantage of the fresh bay leaves that we bought at the natural food store this weekend and cooked some black beans with a few bay leaves and salt. I didn't soak them overnight, but did the fast soak method: Bring beans and water to a boil. Once boiling, take off the heat and leave sitting, covered for an hour. Then drain and rinse the beans. Put them back in the pot and add water to cook with (and a bay leaf! and salt).

I roasted the sweet potatoes simply by chopping them and adding to the baking pan some olive oil, chopped garlic, a tsp. of hungarian paprika, and a handful of chopped fresh rosemary and some chopped fresh sage too....and salt. They only took about half an hour to cook at 150 or so (C).

Black Beans with Spinach:

1. Take a cup or two of cooked black beans and pour off most but not all of the cooking water.
2. Meanwhile in a frying pan, heat olive oil and stir-fry until golden and delicious: 3 cloves chopped garlic, one small chopped onion, the white part of some scallions if you have them. I also added a bit of chopped fresh rosemary and sage, to match with the seasoning of the sweet potatoes.
3. When the onions/garlic are cooked, add them to the pot with the beans and their water. Add some red wine and a bit of soy sauce and cook on medium heat for about 15-20 minutes.
4. When some of the liquid has cooked off, turn off the heat and let it cool a bit. When you are ready, take a potato masher (hand-masher) and mash the bean mixture to a consistency you like. It turns brownish purple. I mashed it so that most of the beans were mushed, but not completely unrecognizable.
5. Now add half a package of frozen spinach. I cooked this on med-low until the spinach was thawed and the whole dish was warm and ready to serve.

Serve on top of or next to some brown rice, with the potatoes!

Miso-stir-fried Veggies with Roasted Tofu

This is what the dinner looks like on the stove before serving. A pot of brown rice is in the back. I first prepared the tofu and put it in the oven. While it's baking (roasting) I cook the rice, then chop my stir-fry ingredients and cook them. The tofu just needs to be stirred once in awhile. Here is a simple explanation of what I did:

For the Tofu:
1. Open one package of firm tofu, press it between two plates with a tea kettle on top to squeeze out some water
2. Whisk in a bowl: 4 tbsp. soy sauce, 1 tbsp. olive oil, 1 tbsp. sesame oil, 2 tbsp. maple syrup, 2 or 3 chopped cloves of garlic.
3. Chop the tofu into even sized little square pieces (first chop the block of tofu in half in both directions, then into 3rds and so on)
4. Drop the chopped tofu in the bowl. Stir. Pour contents of the bowl into a baking dish.
5. Bake for about 45 minutes, stirring every 10 or so? at 175 C or 375 F.

For the Stir-Fry:
1. Chop a few cloves of garlic and an equal amount of fresh ginger root.
2. Heat some oil in the pan (I use olive oil because I'm too cheap to buy another kind and I can use olive oil for everything. But I don't Stir-fry this in the traditional way: I don't make the heat very high. I "Slow-Stir-Fry" at a lower heat so that I can chop things as I go, and so that I don't burn the oil, and because I don't have a good wok and my pan kind of sucks.)
3. Add garlic and ginger and cook carefully so not to burn. Soon add chopped onions & scallions if you have some fresh.
4. Meanwhile chop: half a small head of red cabbage, one very fat carrot (or two small ones). The snow peas I just washed and removed the tough-stem end.
5. First I added the carrots and cabbage. When they'd gotten a bit more colorful and fried, I added some miso broth and some soy sauce. (I heated some water in a kettle and dissolved about 2 tbsp. of dark miso paste in a bowl. This is what I added to the pan with my vegetables.) I covered the pan and let this cook for awhile. When it was nearly done (the carrots and cabbage just little tender), I added the snow peas and a handful of frozen green peas. I also added a little bit of red wine at some point. Then I removed the lid and cooked off the liquid.

Now my tofu is done, vegetables done, & brown basmati rice too. I scoop some rice into a wide bowl and put the veggies and tofu on top. Everything gets eaten together and tastes so good!

Winter Dinners

Roasted Cabbage and potates served with Quinoa and lots of parsleyRoasted Cauliflower and Sweet potatoes with Pasta
Rice & Chickpea Stuffed Peppers with oven-baked zucchini slices
Roasted Potatoes with Red Onion, served with frozen spinach (just salt and olive oil added)
Spinach-Leek-Quiche with more roasted potatoes


Though I haven't written the recipes for these meals, I did feel inspired to take pictures of a few meals I have made in the last few months. The stuffed peppers were a spontaneously created dish, which turned out quite well. (My cousin Abigail suggested I make stuffed peppers, so I did. They were such a tasty and well-rounded meal that I will try them again and write a recipe for them.)

These meals are all vegan, except for the one which is a Quiche.
Basically, you see I have made a lot of roasted potatoes!
That is partly because potatoes are abundant, fresh, and cheap here
in Germany. Also, I think they are delicious and so does Greg. I often
make sweet potato with various kinds of white potatoes in this very
simple way:

Turn on Oven to 175-200 degrees Celcius
Chop Potatoes into Bite-sized pieces (not too small!)
Add plenty of olive oil to a roasting pan
Toss in the potatoes
Add chopped garlic and/or slivered onions
Add a teaspoon or two of Hungarian Paprika
Also add plenty of salt and any other spices you like
(such as Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano, Parsely, Sage, Cinnamon)
Bake in the oven for about 30-45 minutes, stirring a few times.
Serve with spicy mustard or ketchup, or as a side dish for just about
any meal, especially with a dish which contains something green,
such as Spinach-Leek Quiche (as pictured), Quinoa with Scallions (as pictured),
plain-old-spinach...I'll think of more ideas later!

Spring Calls

Hi there! I have been away for awhile, unexpectedly called to the U.S. to say goodbye to my wonderful Grandfather Irving Rosenthal, who passed away on March 12th at his home, surrounded by his devoted wife Lillian, and other members of his large and loving family. I am very grateful I was there, to see him again, and to share that moment with my aunts and cousins and grandmother, and my grandfather.

I have also been spending more time on my music career lately, and less time thinking about what to cook for dinner. I have some European tours coming up (Netherlands, Belgium, Germany in May and U.K. in October, plus more dates hopefully to be added). Also, I've been really learning how to use my website and have added more videos and other updates.

Although I am enjoying being back in this beautiful country (Deustchland), and watching the landscape take on hues of bright, fresh green and yellow, I find it very sad not to be able to dig into the earth and start my own garden. It has been a long time since I didn't have some land available to play around with in spring. I had a community garden plot in Northampton, and then in Jamaica Plain (Massachusetts) before that. In both places I enthusiastically turned over the little plot each spring, planted beets, beans, carrots, tomatoes, greens, pumpkins and other promising dreams...but then I would get distracted as summer came and only visit my garden occasionally, each time more fearful of what kind of weedy mess I might find. I do love gardening, but out of sight is sometimes out of mind for me. I think if I'd been gardening with a partner I would have done better; but enough excuses. I just want to state here and now that if I had a garden this spring, I would tend it lovingly and appreciate any harvest it might put forth. I want to feel and smell the dirt!

Instead I have been taking longer and longer bike rides into the countryside and farm land oustide of this village. I guess outside every city, town, village in Germany there is abundant open land, because they have great zoning laws here. And then there is the fact that bike lanes and walking paths connect every field and hamlet to any other, and you can ride and ride for hours getting lost, listening to the birds, contemplating the hills and newly-green fields.

This weekend Greg and I took a few great rides. On Easter Sunday we took a train about 30 kilometers south, to a cute town called Bad Sooden, where a funny medievil easter festival was taking place. Then we found the bike road which follows the Werra river through some fantastic land. We finished our ride at Hann-Münden, where the Werra meets the Fulda and becomes the Weser River. Next we'll take a train back to Hann-Münden and follow the Weser river north to the sea. It might take a few weekends of back and forth, but I want to ride every kilmeter of that fahradweg (bike way?). It passes through Hameln (of the Pied Piper tale), and Bremen (of the musicians) and other towns with similar-sounding names.

I promise (myself), however not to be too distracted by fair weather, and to continue my food-themed blog. I do still enjoy cooking, and every day I try to make healthy, vegetarian food, and to refine my cooking into the simplest and most pleasant kind of task.

Now I will share a couple of photos of meals I have made in the last few months.

Two-Part Dinner

When I cook for myself alone I end up with one bowl of colorful mushy-tasty stuff. This isn't very appealing to many people. I think only my mother would find it appetizing. She is the queen of mixing unusual foods together. (It can get a bit scary when she mixes too many different kinds of leftovers. Even I start to think twice...) My mom cultivated in me the enjoyment of food combining. I get so excited about some of the most classic combinations (such as kale with sweet potatoes or tomato sauce & pasta with broccoli) and basically this is how I make meals now, when I cook for other people. I think of two or three colors, textures, tastes and make 2 or 3 dishes that I think go together particularly well--also keeping in mind a balance of nutritional components. I'm trying this out on Greg. He doesn't enjoy a dish with too many flavors, or textures. But that's ok. I appreciate simplicity too, and am glad that when cooking for the two of us I strive to find a compromise between what is tasty, healthy, simple but interesting.

Often I end up preparing three separate dishes to make a complete meal. That is okay. But when I can make a 2-dish meal I find it very satisfying. Here is a meal I made last week that was three things at once: healthy, varied-yet-simple, and tasty (Greg liked it too!).

Quinoa-Chickpea Pilaf (recipe from a great cookbook called Veganomicon)
with Spiced Soy-Roasted Vegetables

I made up the title for the second dish. I make roasted vegetables often, using various vegetables and herbs and spices depending on what is good at the market. The one rule is that I cut the vegetables into similar-sized pieces (bite-sized), use some vegetables that compliment one another or my meal (for example last week I roasted sweet potatoes and white potatoes, and when they were half-cooked I added brussel sprouts and zucchini....something starchy, something juicy, something orange, something green...) AND I use soy-sauce to keep them moist while they are roasting. I also add dried (or fresh) herbs such as oregano, thyme, dill, tarragon (sparingly), and then some cayenne or my new favorite, hungarian paprika. Last week I added tons of this hungarian paprika. I just found it in a neat store down the street which has great spices and other exotic ingredients in nice little packages, measured in the store.

I'll post the recipe for these roasted vegetables separately. Make them and adapt the recipe to fit your refridgerator, farmer's market, or to compliment other things you want to make (such as rice, soup, pasta, polenta).

Tangy Baked Tofu

Tangy Baked Tofu:

I have a few recipes (or variations) for making baked tofu. I'll list some others later. This one is not really best with Japanese food. It probably works better with Thai food, or added to pasta. (The flavor is a little heavy for Japanese, I think.) But this is an absolutely delicious way to prepare tofu, and you will probably want to eat all of it before dinner. Also good added to salad, eaten cold, by itself the next day...and if you slice it in wide, flat rectangles instead of cubes it is excellent inside a sandwich!!

Preheat oven to 175 C (375-400 F)

1 block extra firm tofu, squeezed for excess water then cut in medium-small cube-like shapes

In a mixing bowl, whisk: (adjust amounts to suit yourself)
3-4 tbsp. soy sauce
1-2 minced cloves of garlic
1 scant tbsp. toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp. maple syrup
2 tbsp. sesame tahini
1-2 tsp. powedered ginger (not necessary, I didn't have any)
Another "thinner" you can use instead of some of the soy sauce or oil is a splash of O.J.

Add tofu cubes to bowl and mix

Put tofu and liquid into a baking pan (cookie sheet or a deeper dish)

Bake, stirring every 15 minutes or so (Add more soy sauce or oil if desired while cooking)
until the cubes get dark, the liquid is gone and the tofu is chewy. You can vary the time according to the texture you want. If you cook it a very long time (an hour?) the tofu gets small and crisp and delicious (especially on salads). But for a stir-fry I wanted the tofu to be fluffy so I only cooked it until just starting to get dark brown on some sides, and not shrunk too much from its original side. Still, this took about 40 minutes, I think.

Bearing Brown Rice

Greg prefers white rice to brown. Actually, he just doesn't like brown rice, or so he thinks. This has been a subject of debate for us. I don't think I have yet proved myself, though my arguments are so solid, so fibrous! I know I will win, one day.

The point is, Greg thinks white rice tastes better and doesn't like the texture of brown rice. I say brown rice has a fun texture and a great toasty taste. And it is better for you. I refuse to eat white rice because it tastes too much like candy. (Well, I think it tastes great but I would rather get my calories from something more nutritious, and I also think brown rice is very nice....In fact a favorite snack sometimes is a small bowl of hot, freshly steamed brown rice with olive oil and salt and pepper thrown on it. This is heavenly.)

I was excited about making a healthy vegetable stir-fry with brown rice and tofu today, because all weekend Greg and I ate mostly potatoes, pancakes and pasta. I need to redeem myself and save him too! Whenever I plan to make tofu for Greg (or brown rice), I get nervous. I have to make it great! Because if I make it absolutely amazing and delicious, he still won't notice and only then might he barely tolerate it. Maybe I am being harsh, but this is the state I am in after some trials.

So, I went for a walk this afternoon and decided that toasted sesame oil might help the stir-fry and the rice situation. Just last week I noticed an Asian Laden (asian food shop!) a few blocks from here. There is another shop I visit for Indian/Mexican/Asian ingredients but this new place has more of the particularly "Asian" stuff. It is great and even has a big refridgerator full of fresh herbs like cilantro and thai basil and lemongrass and fresh tofu too.

I try to be very frugal in the ingredients I buy here in Germany. I don't have a job (legally I can't have one) and Greg isn't moved by or really even aware of the things that one must buy to make good food. So I have a very limited selection of herbs and oils and vinegars and the other basics one might need to make great tasting food. I am thinking of this period as an experiment in how simple really is good....But I do think Sesame Oil adds a lot, and so for the first time I bought some here. I would really like to buy rice wine vinegar or some seaweed or other things that make japanese food so good. I don't have much experience with these ingredients but have a desire to become adept at making tasty Japanese-style meals.

Anyway, with my shorter list of ingredients, I stir-fried the veggies in a little oil and then added some miso (mixed with water) and cooked til the water was gone. It was ok, but missing something. (I had started with onion, garlic and ginger...) Maybe hot peppers, or some of that rice vinegar, or even just cilantro would have made this work better. Or perhaps I added just a bit too much miso. I have tried this trick of steaming/stir-frying vegetables in miso in the past and it is always delcious. This was the first time I used the very dark kind of miso paste. Maybe that was the problem. I'll work on this recipe and post it later when it is good!

Meanwhile, look at my recipe for no-fail, delicious tofu! Greg said that the meal, of miso-stir-fried veggies, brown rice and baked tofu was "very good, despite the brown rice and tofu." He also said after his first taste of the tofu that it was the best tofu he's ever had. He hasn't had much, but I'll take what compliments I can get!

Sharing the Joy

I have long been an adamant fan of the idea of healthy eating. I inherited this interest from my mother. My current day-dream is to go to grad school and study nutrition so that I can really know what I'm talking about when I talk about cooking and eating well to maintain the health of my body (and your body, and the planet's body). I also love cooking, and have done so for a living more often than I've made a living in my actual "career" as a musician and singer/songwriter.

I am a published cookbook and song writer. My only cookbook publication to date is a self-released work, a collaboration with my musical duo partner, Lisa Bastoni. Our Gray Sky Girls cookbook is full of tasty vegetarian recipes passed down from families or of our own invention. The Gray Sky Girls cookbook also contains hand-made illustrations of the foods, travel tips for musicians and non-musicians, a cartoon of some of our adventures, and other useless, interesting information.

Since Lisa and I printed this cookbook I've wanted to do another. Not as crafty without Lisa's influence, I find myself maintaining the idea but not producing any product.

So, since I love writing stories about myself and the world as I see it, and am passionate about cooking and creating simple, tasty meals with fresh ingredients and the health of the human body and the bodies of all other creatures in mind...I will blog about food. Others do it. Maybe I should not do it! Too many others do it. I am by no means a gourmet. I just know how to make things I like. And I believe that when I buy, eat, cook food I am influencing not just my own few cubic feet of flesh and blood and other stuff, but a much broader and incalculable set of bodies and circumstances. I want to do good in the world by encouraging you to eat well, take care of yourself and others, and make choices at the market, the restaurant, in the kitchen, and at the table, that will help life flourish, not fade.

(Am I being subtle enough? I believe you should eat less meat!! And if you don't believe me, I hope you'll try some of my recipes anyway. And then forget all the meat-recipes you know. Then make up your own recipes, without the meat, pesticides and other crap.)