Tag Archives: vegetarian

Thai Coconut Milk Soup with Shirataki Noodles

In this long adventure into healthier cooking, we sometimes have a longing for things that are just taboo, save for the one day a week we indulge. The lack of carbohydrate rich foods in our diet did leave something missing. I don’t know if it’s psychological or physiological. It’s hard to say. Assuming its psychological, finding substitutes should help.

Every few months I like to bust out this Thai soup that is packed with veggies. But most Thai soups tend to have noodles. Occasionally I would add julienned zucchini to the soup which…helped…but wasn’t great. To compensate for that I started using Shirataki Noodles. They are made from a white yam, but unlike most yams it has no sugar and is very low in carbohydrates. It barely has any calories either. Evidently it expands in your stomach too, giving you the feeling of fullness. This isn’t so much an issue for us, as we eat as much as we want of the healthy stuff, which is a lot less now than it was 8 months ago. I think naturally our stomachs just shrank, along with the rest of us. Some shirataki are made from tofu. I try to avoid those b/c we already eat too much soy aside from the fact that they really don’t taste as good as real shirataki noodles. The tofu is seasoned with a little soy sauce but you can use Bragg’s Liquid Amino’s instead. My girlfriend doesn’t like the word “amino” so she doesn’t go anywhere near the stuff. Alternatively, if you are not a vegetarian you could use chicken (which is how I prefer it)

Thai Coconut Milk Soup With Shirataki Noodles
2 cans coconut milk
2 tbsp red thai curry paste
1 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large red pepper, diced
1 large carrot, julienned
1 stalk lemongrass, cut in 3 inch pieces and smashed
4 cups vegetable broth
4 cups water
1 package tofu, extra firm
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
2 packages shirataki noodles

Start by cutting the tofu into 1/2 inch thick slices. Wrap between paper towels and set on deep plate. Place a plate on top of it so that it squeezes all the water out for about 1/2 hour. Before unwrapping give another good squeeze then cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Heat sesame oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat and saute about 3-4 minutes on each side until tofu is crispy. Toss in soy sauce in pan and mix until well incorporated. Remove from heat.

Separate the coconut cream from the coconut milk. Add cream to a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Mix in thai paste and cook until fragrant. Add onions and garlic and saute until the onions sweat – about 4 minutes. Then add peppers, carrots, and lemon grass. Mix well for 1-2 minutes. Add broth and water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cover and let cook for 25 minutes. In the meantime, drain your shirataki noodles (they may smell funny but that smell goes away after you cook them. After the soup cooks for 25 minutes, add shirataki noodles and cook for another 5-10 minutes on simmer. Use tongs to remove desired amount of noodle into bowl. Use a ladle to spoon vegetables and broth into bowl. Top with tofu and enjoy.

Curried Cauliflower & Beluga Lentils

We do a roasted curry cauliflower dish every few weeks. I love to roast vegetables, but the kitchen gets dreadfully hot in the summer so I thought I’d try to sous-vide this, not to just save on sweat but also to try to maintain a firm solid piece of cauliflower for the presentation of this dish while keeping it extremely moist. Feel free to do this dish roasted (425F for about 20 minutes) if you don’t have sous-vide, it should turn out similar, albeit a bit dry. This is also a perfect Slow Carb / 4 Hour Body Recipe.

1 Head Cauliflower
1 cup dried beluga lentils
1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
3 Tbsp Ghee or clarified butter
1 Tbsp Garam Masala
1 Tbsp Curry Powder
1 Tbsp Coriander
1 Tbsp Cumin
1 Tbsp Turmeric
1 tbsp cloves
1 tbsp cardamom pods

Set Sous-vide to 85C. Throughly sort and wash the black lentils (easiest lentils to sort, btw). Place in small saucepan with broth, bring just to bowl, reduce temp and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Don’t let the lentils get mushy! Drain excess broth from lentils when finished

In a small bowl mix all the spices together. Clean and cut the cauliflower into one inch full slices. Brush each side with the ghee. Very gently rub the spice mixture into each piece of cauliflower. Place into sous vide bags. I like to use a large bag and place two in with some room between them, and then vacuum pack the bags. Get a nice tight vacuum on them. Stick in the sous vide for 15 minutes. Remove and immerse in an ice bath.

Carefully remove the cauliflower from the bags. Heat a heavy bottomed skillet on high with a few tablespoons of ghee. Just as it begins to smoke, place the cauliflower in the skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, until you get a nice caramelization on each side. (you can also use a blow torch). While that is searing, prepare a plate with thick layer of lentils. Place a piece of cauliflower on top of the lentils and spoon a little extra butter over the top of it and finish with a little sea salt. Viola.

Thai Cabbage Salad with Chicken

I’ve gotten into the habit of making this salad at least every other week. Sometimes it’s once a week. It’s very easy to make with a little prep work involved. I recently bought and OXO mandoline slicer to make julienning carrots easier – my knife skills are least to be desired. The great things about this salad: The flavor and kick are amazing and for two people, this salad stretches out over at least 2 meals each. To make this meal vegan, you can use WestSoy’s Seitan Strips – sometimes I prefer them over the chicken.

The original recipe called for sugar, which is something that is annoying the hell out of me lately with the supposed healthy options at restaurants. I had this great salad at a mexican restaurant, only to find out afterwards that the dressing had sugar in it. The dressing would have been just as good without the added sugar. And with this Thai Cabbage Salad we have a perfectly robust and flavorful salad with a dressing that has some amazing spice and kick and we want to ruin it with sugar? Sure, sugar tastes good, but can’t we get the same effect by omitting the sugar? The lemon and lime juice are added to give it a little sweetness without the damaging effects of blood sugar spikes. Something that I am trying to avoid to lose excess fat. Lemons, limes and grapefruit have a surprisingly leveling effect on blood sugar, but it should be noted that it doesn’t work all the time, only occasionally and in small amounts. I try to incorporate a small squeeze of lemon in almost every salad I make.

Thai Cabbage Salad (adapted from the epicurious recipe)
Makes: 4 humongous bowls
Serving Size: 1 humongous bowl
Protein: 20 grams
Carbs: 14 grams

Salad
1 small to medium head Red Cabbage, shredded
1 small to medium head Savoy or Green Cabbage, shredded
1 large red pepper, diced
3 carrots, julienned
1 large cucumber, seeded and diced thin
1 bunch green onion, sliced thin
1/2 cup tightly packed basil, chopped
1/2 cup tightly packed cilantro, chopped
1 cup unsalted peanuts

Mix all ingredients together, except for the peanuts, top with dressing, chicken and peanuts just before serving, season with a little salt and Sriracha if necessary.

Dressing
1/2 cup sunflower oil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp, Sesame Oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced (seeded for less spice)
Zest and Juice of 1 Lemon
Zest and Juice of 1 Lime
2 Tbsp Sriracha

Mix all ingredients together, shake vigorously in a jar to emulsify.

Chicken
2 chicken breasts, diced
1 tsp, turmeric
1 tsp, ground ginger
1 tsp, garlic
1 tsp, salt
1 tsp, cumin

Season the chicken with the spices and cook over medium heat, stirring regularly for about 6 minutes or until thoroughly cooked.

Egg Muffins and Lifestyle changes (A 4 hour body recipe)

Today I end my love affair with sugar.

Let me back up a bit. It actually ended about 2 months ago after a brief phone call with my doctor in which he told me, “You have the liver of an alcoholic”. You could say I was a bit devastated. I should have known that after a lifetime of poor diet choices that it would lead to something but I never thought it would be my liver. This is a potentially serious condition that, at this point, is completely reversible. The time to act is now.

A few months before, I had started reading The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss. I had quickly lost interest before I even got to the diet part of the book, which was like chapter 3. (Yeah, I lose interest that quick—I blame the ADD.) After I got the news, I picked the book back up immediately and reread the entire diet section. I skipped the sex machine part of the book, for obvious reasons

After reading that book, I jumped over to a recommendation from a 4HB friend called Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It by Gary Taubes. This is the definitive book on why carbs, specifically simple carbs like sugar and starch are so bad for our bodies. But it’s even more specific on why fat and protein are NOT bad for you, even in large amounts. I say fat first, because realistically, when looking at the calorie to gram ratio, fat is more than twice as large.

I now follow the 4HB diet as a lifestyle change, not as a diet. I make a point to pack in protein and complex carbs from beans and lentils into every meal. But more importantly, my fat content, especially the fat content from animal fat, is even higher than it ever was. I don’t go out of my way to find animal fat, I’m just not as scared of it any more.

That said, my girlfriend is a vegetarian, which means no animal fat for her. The protein sources are limited when you factor out the occasional soy product, which really isn’t good for anyone, let alone women. I think coping with that, has made life a little more difficult for her. Even more difficult is packing in 30 grams of protein a day for breakfast. I doubt either of us came anywhere near that in the morning. For her busy full time schedule, it makes it even more challenging so I’ve developed a recipe to make it a little easier on her, which is below.

I don’t want to make a huge deal out this change and the science behind it, but as I’m sure everyone I’ve come into contact with over the last two months can attest to, I do make it a bit of the centerpiece of my social life. I apologize for that. Instead I’m going to try to interject it into this blog, which will effectively change the format for the future. Ok, so maybe it’s kind of a big deal for those of you who came to this blog to see extremely beautiful but crazily unhealthy foods. The lack of sugar and starch can be a bit humdrum, I know. Unfortunately no matter how you slice it fruit is sugar, dairy is sugar, and alcohol is sugar. But fear not…

Did I mention that once a week we eat whatever the hell we want? Since we don’t want to bring the crap foods into our kitchen anymore we mostly eat those meals out, which will become the focus to the naughtier parts of this blog, the fun and crazy stuff. This diet, in its simplest form, is kind of boring, I have to admit. It calls for consuming large amounts of protein, vegetables and lentils or beans. That, in itself, is very easy to do but after time can get boring. Reverend Ferriss (as I’ve come to lovingly call him) is all about the boring for the sake of ease. “Are you really going to go through major prep for every meal?” For most people, the answer is no. But for people like me, who are already there, the answer is resoundingly, “Yes.” So if you find yourself on a low/slow/no carb diet or just want to try something new and healthy, this blog might just be for you.

Believe it or not, I actually had a TL:DR version of this blog post, one that reflected most of the points of the diet. I decided it would be better to slowly reveal that information and tie it into the subject of each blog post. That is where we start with this recipe – one of many 4 hour body recipes that will be featured on this site. It’s one of the rules of the diet — 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up.

Egg Muffins
Makes: 12 protein rich muffins
Serving size: 3 muffins
Protein: +/- 30 grams
Fat: Who cares? (I’ll explain this at another time)

12 Eggs
4 cups of spinach, finely chopped, then wilted
3 cups of lentils, cooked
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp pepper
2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a cupcake tray with nonstick spray or grease with oil. Add eggs to a large bowl, mix with a whisk, then add spinach, lentils, and spices. Using a half cup measure, pour mixture into cupcake tins. I like to additionally mix it around with the measuring cup before scooping and pouring as the lentils tend to sink to the bottom. It’s important to keep a good mix of egg and lentils. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until completely set in the center. Remove from oven, let cool. This is important for having a clean pan when you take them out of the tray. If you try to remove them still hot, they will crumble. As the cool they shrink enough that they pop out with ease, leaving nothing behind, as long as you’ve coated the pan with enough oil. Enjoy

I’ve also recently played around with different protein sources other than lentils. I did chickpeas and black beans recently and I found that I actually loved them more than the lentils. But the lentils are smaller and denser so you can pack in more protein per square inch. When you are eating these every day for breakfast, it’s best to mix it up every once in a while.

The Best Pizza Ever – Di Fara’s Pizza – Brooklyn, NY

Dom DeMarco has been making pies for over 50 years in Brooklyn

Aside from the most amazing pizza in the world, the wait is the most memorable part of the experience.

note: this is a much longer article than most, the rest of the pictures are after the story.

Pizza is one of the most important food items in the culinary world and extremely hard to nail with its varied taste preferences, depending on who you ask: deep dish, pan pizza, Sicilian, thin crust, thick crust, cracker-thin crust, cheese in the crust (thanks Papa Johns), mozzarella, provolone, cheddar, fontina, fromage blanc, spicy sauce (thanks 2 Boots), sweet sauce, white sauce. For good measure, the best way to test a pizza maker’s ability is to order a regular plain pie – crust, tomato-based sauce, cheese and see what it does for you. If it knocks your socks off, then you know there is some serious skill involved. I admire anyone who can make a killer cheese pie. The toppings are just embellishments that add a wide variety of taste and textures. I like a nice salty anchovy pie or the quintessential “Meat Lover’s” (thanks Pizza Hut).

The pizza wars here in NYC are a favorite subject of mine – I’ve tried Patsy’s, Lombardi’s, Grimaldi’s, Totonno’s, John’s, Joe’s, Artichoke, L & B, Motorino and about a million “Ray’s” (are any Ray’s above standard?) and while I would never scoff at any of these places, there still can only be one best pizza in NYC. Hands down, by a longshot, it is Di Fara’s Pizza. I declare that there is a pizza God and his name is Dom DeMarco .

I love when friends and family visit and tell me they went to Patsy’s and “OMG it was amazing” and I think “You didn’t go far enough”. And then another will say “I went to Lombardi’s and “OMG, isn’t it the best pizza you’ve ever had” and I think “You didn’t go far enough”. And then they say “I went all the way to brooklyn for the best pizza at Lombardi’s” and I think – “Grimaldi’s, really?” AND “You didn’t go far enough” This is why when they visit, I try to guide them the to the right places and I will take them to Di Fara’s because I truly want them to experience this place…plus it gives me a good excuse to go.

Yes, The best pizza in NYC is in Brooklyn, a city so great that it was once its own city, and by all rights should be today. No one scoffs at Brooklyn anymore. It’s a cool place – everyone wants to live here – HBO even rebooted Sex And The City, setting it in Brooklyn and called it GIRLS.

But Midwood, where you will find Di Fara’s Pizza, isn’t exactly, “On The Grid”. Perhaps slightly more on the grid then L & B Spumoni Gardens but considerably less on the grid than Motorino. But as the proverbial wise old man would say “the best things in life, you have to work for” (or something like that) – which in this sense means you’ll have to take the D train to Avenue J and its right there when you come above ground – no biggie.

The hard part is the wait, which in the heat of the summer is pretty miserable. And don’t think for a second “Oh its 139 degrees out, there won’t be a line at all”. Everyone is thinking that, especially me. People want this pizza, and they are willing to wait for it and for the most part they wait patiently. And when they don’t they’ve got about 2 dozen Dom defenders making sure respect is paid. I’ve waited two hours for a pizza – happily, with a smile on my face. They’ve messed up my order before – it happens I live with it – b/c its seriously the best damn pizza I’ve ever had. And not in some soup nazi kind of way either. Dom, the owner and sole pizza maker (The Maestro?), is very nice and if he remembers you, he takes a second to say hello – only a second though – because his main concern, well before they open, is making pizza.

I arrived at 11:20 on a Wednesday – 1/2 hour before they were set to open. Maggie, Dom’s daughter, greeted me at the door, her father and her were sitting in the dining room waiting for the ovens to warm up. I set up and talked to them for a few minutes. By 11:30, there was a person in line. By noon, there was a line 15 people deep. Dom made a pizza, put it in the oven, but wasn’t certain the ovens were ready yet. 12:15, the line is about 20 people deep. Pizza is not cooking evenly enough. 12:30, the oven is just about there and they open the doors. The people flood in. The first guy in line doesn’t say hello, just says “One Square pie with everything” (By which he means he wants the classic pie – onions, peppers, sausage. Within 5 minutes, they’ve got an entire sheet of orders. It’s at this point that I realize I should probably get my order in if I want to get a pizza.

This isn’t some factory where pies are constantly going in and coming out. Dom takes his time – patting the dough, stretching the dough, saucing, shredding the mozzarella, spreading it around, topping with parmesan, putting it in the oven. He could probably do it faster, he says, but that just wouldn’t be right. There is no rush for him. His customers, the ones in the know at least, they don’t mind. A customer, a local from the neighborhood, laughs, “It’s like he’s Michelangelo the way he makes each pie”. This is what I respect, more than anything. This isn’t a place you come to order a pizza and sit down. This is a place to watch a man and his craft in action. Even if the pizza were to suck, watching the process would be interesting enough.

I like to bring my family here when they visit from out of town but I warn them that having this pizza will 1.) be a very long wait in a very hot restaurant and 2.) will ruin them for pizza for the rest of their lives because no pizza, ever, will live up to what this place can do.

This isn’t some trendy brunch spot in your favorite nyc neighborhood. It’s not a passing fad (he’s been making pizzas for over 50 years). This is the real deal and I don’t care what you say – if you haven’t had Di Fara’s pizza, you still haven’t had the best pizza.

Difara’s Pizza
1424 Avenue J
Brooklyn NY 11230
718-258-1367

A guy comes up with the last three slices of pizza and asks dom to slice them all in half so that “we don’t fight over who gets the last piece”. Dom say’s “You fight over a woman, not over a pizza”

If you come in for a square pie, be prepared to wait. The pizza goes in twice. Once to cook the crust and another time to brown it and cook the toppings – Dom’s square special pie is the best and worth the wait.

Dom puts fresh basil on every pie

This is the Difara special (“Classic”) Pie with sausage, onions and peppers

Regular Pie

A slice at Difara’s is $5 a whole pie is 28-32+ – I always get a square and a regular when I order – The pizza keeps and reheats well.

Square Pie

Vegan Ingenuity – Maimonides of Brooklyn – Brooklyn, NYC

Maimonides of Brooklyn (MOB) - Boerum Hill, Brooklyn

Interior dining area of MOB

Their menu comes with it’s own MOB comic book. They make “cheesecake” by culturing almond milk with probiotics. Need I say more? Well, yes, I should. The menu is simple, in a good way. The MOB’s are amazing – my favorites are the Iron Man and The Belly Charmer (pictured below). But this special one, made by chef Neal Harden, is not on the menu. It features avocado, zucchini and tomato with olive tapenade. The bread is a crispy and soft flatbread (which also comes gluten-free) that is shaped like the arches of the Brooklyn Bridge and out of this world. The presentation of these are really cool. The quinoa salad is refreshing and filling. Kale chips are served like tortilla chips at a mexican restaurant and you can have as many as you want. And as it turns out are super simple to make (recipe after the photographs). I’m not a vegan but if I ate at this place everyday, I’d have no complaints.

Maimonides of Brooklyn (MOB)
525 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn 11217
(718) 797-2555

Quinoa Salad dressed in lime, scallion and mint, candy beets, avocado, pumpkin seeds, toasted cumin

Belly Charmer MOB tagine of eggplant, zucchini, and carrot, moroccan spices, pistachio, mint and cilantro and Special MOB of avocado, zucchini and tomato with olive tapenade

Special MOB of avocado, zucchini and tomato with olive tapenade

Belly Charmer MOB tagine of eggplant, zucchini, and carrot, moroccan spices, pistachio, mint and cilantro

Chocolate Cheesecake with Mango and Passion Fruit Sauce

Chef Neal Harden

Kale Chips

Kale Chips
note: this recipe does not make much, if you want more than just a snack or would like to stock up on the chips, you can double the recipe and store these in a sealed container for a few days
1 bunch of Kale, hard stems removed
Olive Oil
Sea Salt

Toss Kale Chips in Olive oil and sea salt to taste, lay flat on a baking dish and cook for 10-13 minutes at 350F.

Meatless Mondays: Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls

Yeah two days late, but you can still make it next monday. Its a vegetarian cabbage roll dish that I put together using barley, zucchini, spring onions and tomatoes. Recipe after the pictures.

Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls w/ Barley, Zucchini, and Green Onion

From a food styling perspective, its best not to make things too saucy. From an eating perspective, especially my girlfriends, the saucier the better. This next photo is for those who like it saucy.

Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls (adapted from The Vegetarian Bible)
1 head of Green Cabbage – 12 leaves, hard stems removed
7 cups of water
1 cup of barley
4 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
6 cups of chopped tomatoes, (canned or fresh will work)
4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar
2 tablespoons Safflower or sunflower oil
3 small to medium zucchini, diced
6 spring onions, sliced
salt & pepper to taste

Boil a large pot of water for blanching. Blanch the cabbage leaves for 2 minutes, remove from water and pat dry

In a medium pot filled with 7 cups of water, bring 2 tbsp parsley and the barley to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the barley is soft.

In a blender, puree the tomatoes,vinegar, the remainder of the parsley and garlic, and salt and pepper to taste until smooth

In a large saucepan, saute the zucchini for 4 minutes, then add spring onions and saute for a minute, season with salt and pepper. Add half of the tomato puree and cook for 10 minutes until sauce becomes thick. Add the barley and stir to combine. Let cool for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper, if needed.

Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly brush safflower oil on a large casserole dish. Begin the wrapping process by laying a leaf flat on a table or cutting board, rib side down. Place about 1/4 cup of the mixture onto the bottom of the leaf, towards the stem end. Fold in the corners and roll tightly to the end (see photo above). Repeat for each leaf, placing each roll into the casserole dish. Cover with the remainder of the tomato mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 1/2 hour. Remove from oven, remove foil and let cool for a few minutes then serve with freshly grated salt and pepper. Enjoy

Foragers City Table – Chelsea, Manhattan, NYC

Foragers City Table sits in the site of what was last years Tribeca Film Festival Press office, so imagine my surprise when I found a restaurant here that has only been open just over a week. The beautiful airy restaurant with floor-to-ceiling windows on one side specializes in farm-to-table modern cuisine with just a touch of asian flavor. The food is inventive and wonderful and definitely some good vegetarian options as well.

Foragers City Table
300 W 22nd St (@8th Avenue)
New York, NY 10011

Fermented Tea-Leaf Salad | little gems, dried shrimp, sesame, peanuts, crispy garlic, split peas

Tea Smoked Black Cod | spring pea ragout, crimson tomato house bacon sunomono

heritage farm red wattle pork porterhouse | verbena caramel, pickled ramps & spring onions

organic fried black pepper tofu | broccolini, onions

7-spice chicken wings | meyer lemon nuoc cham

The Chefs – Jason Greenberg and Ross Gill

Caprese Burger

I’m all for a relatively effortless meal. Especially since I find myself dividing my time between the kitchen and the studio. It makes me long for the days when I just shot my meals at restaurants (I’ll be heading back into that next week, btw). This Caprese Burger, by Spike Mendelsohn, is pretty simple, save for the pesto sauce, but if you want it effortless you can just buy store bought. But store bought is rarely better thank making it yourself. As a forewarning, these things are messy. I would highly recommend reducing the cooking time on the tomatoes so they don’t get mushy. The recipe calls for 45min to 1hr. I would say maybe 35-38 minutes, at the most. Using a good room temperature mozzarella will ensure that you get some gooeyness out of your cheese, however if you want it real gooey, put it on in the last few minutes of your bake cycle. Recipe after the pictures.

Tomatos roasted with olive oil, garlic, salt, and basil

Pesto made of basil, pine nuts, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, garlic and olive oil

Bun

Tomato

Cheese

Melted Cheese

Pesto

Balsamic Vinegar

Finished Burger

Caprese Burger
3 beefsteak tomatoes, cored and cut in half
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 garlic clove, minced
6 basil leaves, julienned
6 potato buns, cut in half
1 pound fresh mozzarella, cut into 6 thick slices
3 tablespoons store-bought balsamic vinaigrette
1/2 basil pesto, recipe below

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300°F.
Put the 6 tomato halves, flesh side up, on a baking sheet. Drizzle each with some of the olive oil, 1 teaspoon each of salt and pepper, some minced garlic, and some basil. Cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until tomatoes are soft when a fork is inserted.
Toast the buns under a broiler, so the inside is crisp, but the outside is still soft.
To assemble the burgers, place a tomato half on the bottom bun. Top with 1 mozzarella slice on the tomato, 1 1/2 teaspoons vinaigrette, and season with salt and black pepper. Spread the pesto on the bun top and cover. Repeat with the remaining ingredients. Let rest for 2 to 3 minutes and serve.
Serves 6.

Basil Pesto
1/2 cup packed fresh basil
2 or 3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Pinch crushed red pepper
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Add the basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, crushed red pepper, and salt and pepper to a taste to a food processor or blender. Puree until smooth. This can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Makes about 1 cup.

Meatless Mondays: Spaghetti Squash and Lentil Meatballs

Everyone loves the low-carb diets out there. They really do help you lose weight. Unfortunately they also leave you yearning for those carbo-meals that you love. Here is one that should do the trick and to top it off, it’s vegetarian, using a lentil base for the meatball. This brings me to my next point: The low carb lifestyle has put prominence on the high protein lifestyle which can also mean high-fat lifestyle, which is probably worse for your heart than being overweight on carbs. Which is why these meatballs, when fried in a good oil, are still very heart healthy. And if you want to be even more heart-healthy, you can just bake them. Personally I use sunflower oil so that I can get a nice crunch in a matter of minutes on these meatballs. Speaking of meatless meatballs, I think it is important to have a meat-free day at least once a week. Since my girlfriend is a vegetarian, it is essentially every night, unless I go out to dinner. But when I cook for us, I cook vegetarian. I think we both miss these great american (or italian) staples in our diet, so we choose to do them in a much healthier way. Plus, reducing meat consumption once a week is really great for the environment.

Spaghetti Squash & Lentil Meatballs (serves 4)

One Large Spaghetti Squash

Preheat oven to 375F
Poke holes in your squash and place on a shallow baking sheet, whole
Cook until throughly cooked 45 minutes to an 1 hour.
Let cool for a few minutes then cut in half, lengthwise. scrape out seeds in the center and with a fork gently pull strands of the squash out. Toss with a little salt and set aside

4 cups of your favorite homemade pasta sauce

Lentil meatballs
1 cup lentils
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 cup arugula, finely chopped
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 cup ricotta cheese
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
Salt & Pepper, to taste
frying oil, enough to half cover the meatballs in the pan (rec: sunflower oil)

Cook 1 cup lentils in a saucepan with 2 cups of broth. Bring to a boil for 2-3 minutes, then cover and let cook for 30-45 minutes or until lentils are soft. Let cool drain any access juice. Puree the lentils in a blender and then add all the additional ingredients in a bowl. Hand mix until everything is well combined. Refrigerate the mixture for 3 hours. Once the mixture has set, form into 2 tablespoon sized balls and cook in frying oil for a few minutes on each side to brown. Push the balls down a little bit if they seem to be cooking unevenly. And flip often to make sure they fully cook inside. Once cooked, transfer to a plate with paper and let excess oil drain off.

Arrange a small amount of spaghetti squash on plate. Spoon sauce on top of the squash and then arrange a desired number of meatballs (4 is good) on top of sauce. Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese. Enjoy.

Snap Food

capturing food culture, all over the world, one plate at a time