June has been an explosion of change, insight, revelations and amazement and to cap off these whirlwind few weeks—our baby (Mr. Moon) turned 3! It is also the third spring birthday in our little family (plus aunts, a grandfather and some close friends) so I feel like I’ve been on a birthday cake roll. I’m excited to share more cake insights soon but in the day-to-day it’s this breakfast recipe that has sustained us. Or, perhaps more accurately, it’s the recipe that has saved many a morning with the busy shift into summer. It’s kind of like a combination of my famous

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I’m enjoying a delicious, warm muffin and hoping that you’ll get to make them soon! Please find the recipe below along with the egg free version that I’m not completely thrilled with but I do believe it’s a good jumping off point for anyone wanting to go in that direction.

Many, many thanks for your suppo…

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Lately, I can’t seem to follow any kind of rhythm when it comes to making dinner. I usually have a grain or a bean soaking as a starting point to help guide our meals but for some reason, I keep forgetting to soak anything or is it that I’m refusing to follow even the vaguest of meal plans? When, seemingly suddenly, dinner time arrives, soba noodles have been my savior—I grew up eating them and to my surprise my children love them too. They’re surprisingly satisfying even when eaten very plainly. For the kids I toss the warm noodles with olive oil and tamari, and we eat them with a green salad and or steamed vegetables and maybe a jammy boiled egg on the side. It’s the quickest, easiest dinner that they dub “noodle the poodle” after a dog in the Hairy Maclary children’s book series that’s getting its second life through Theo.

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When recently discovering my shiso plant coming up in the garden and inhaling it’s unusual scent, I was reminded of how good the pungent, minty herb tastes with these salad ingredients. The earthy soba noodles paired with bright rice-vinegar-pickled cucumber, fresh ginger, tamari and toasted sesame all mellowed out by large slices of creamy avocado—it’s makes for a delicious warm wether meal. After a very chilly and wet spring I am more than ready for meals that can be served room temperature.

Don’t forget I’ll be making the Chive + Feta muffins with Sweet Corn live this Sunday, May 31st @10:30am EST. Please join me and as always bring your cooking questions.

Amy, xo

PS. I enjoyed doing this interview over on Well Nourished last week. Thank you Lauren!

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RECIPE NOTES:

Soba noodles are usually made with a combination of buckwheat and wheat flour. 100% buckwheat noodles are gluten free. They are stickier and can clump when cooking so I like to help keep things moving with a long chopstick when boiling them. I really like these buckwheat and brown rice noodles too (pictured above).

Shiso, also known as perilla, is a member of the mint family. Find shiso at farmer’s markets in summer through early fall, at Japanese grocery stores or grow your own.

Soba salad with avocado, pickled cucumbers and shiso dressing

Serves 4 to 6

Pickled cucumbers:

2 medium to large Persian cucumbers

3 tablespoons brown rice vinegar

Sea salt

Dressing:

2 tablespoons tamari, plus more to taste

2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar

1 small clove garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons peeled and finely grated ginger

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

10 shiso leaves, plus more to garnish

Salad:

1 8oz pack soba noodles

2 scallions, thinly sliced

2 ripe avocadoes

Toasted black sesame seeds to garnish

Pickle the cucumbers:

Shave the cucumbers on a mandolin or cut them as fine as possible, you should have about 2 cups. Place them in a bowl and add rice vinegar and a large pinch of salt, mix to combine and set aside.

Make the dressing:

In a small bowl combine tamari, rice vinegar, garlic and ginger. Drizzle in oils and mix well. Stack the shiso leaves and roll them up tightly, then finely slice them into thin strips. Stir them into the dressing.

Make the salad:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add noodles and cook according to the package directions. Drain, rinse thoroughly with cold water and drain again. Place noodles in a large bowl, drizzle with dressing and mix until evenly combined. Add cucumber pickles and their juice and mix again, season to taste with sea salt or tamari. Add scallions and avocado and gently toss to combine. Season to taste and garnish with black sesame seeds and shiso leaves.

This salad was originally developed for the Food Network’s Healthy Eats Blog.

I’m not intending to create a baking Substack but you might think otherwise with the amount of muffins and cakes coming out of my kitchen these days. It’s been a cold spring and having the oven on feels good right now. This recipe was written in my note book a few years ago. I recently found it when looking for a savory muffin to serve with soup. It has mashed sweet potato whisked into the batter and I happened to have white sweet potatoes on hand. I never use the white variety for meals but they’re great for steaming and using in muffins or grating into waffles. The creamy white color keeps baked goods light-colored which signals “store bought” to Ezra. This recipe is a version of my sisters version of my mother’s version of

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Fennel is one of the few vegetables Ezra will eat regularly. He’s liked it since he was a toddler and prefers the stems to the bulb, which is fine with me since I’m often buying more stem than bulb anyway. Ezra starts with the tender parts of the long stems and then chews on the stringy bits. On a recent Friday night, we happened to be right by Feast and Floret a restaurant in Hudson (New York), as they were opening for dinner. It had been a while since we’d tried eating out as a family; so, we decided to be brave and see if we could all stay seated for the duration. It ended up a success , we enjoyed a really lovely time (though we were in and out of the restaurant in under an hour) and an extremely delicious meal. For part of my meal, I ordered their shaved fennel salad with pistachios, feta and olives. I was surprised when Ezra devoured the entire bowl and thought I was immediately inspired to try this at home. Since I usually have these ingredients on hand (always plenty of fennel bulbs) I made a variation of the salad the next night. He gobbled it up—despite the fact that during our meal at Feast and Floret he had declared that they were much better cooks than me!

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This is my version of the Feast and Floret salad with a spring twist, using chives and mint—the only edible plants that have come back in our garden so far this spring. I recently ate the salad with basmati rice and a jammy egg—which was a lovely, light and easy meal. On my last post a reader asked for a spring bowl recipe, and I think the aforementioned combination is a simple and elegant solution that I know I’ll be repeating.

Let me know if you like it!

Amy, xo

Note:

When I say “trimmed fennel” in the recipe I mean not only stems removed but also any tough outer layers of the fennel. Weigh it after trimming. I used 3 small-medium bulbs to end up with 3 cups shaved fennel.

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Spring shaved Fennel Salad

Serves 2 to 4

250 g trimmed fennel bulbs

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

¼ cup salted and shelled pistachios, roughly chopped

60 g feta, broken up (1/2 cup)

8 Castelvetrano olives, pitted and roughly torn

3 tablespoons torn mint leaves

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Flakey sea salt to taste

Quarter fennel bulbs, core and shave on a mandolin. You should end up with 3 cups of shaved fennel. Place in a medium size serving bowl and immediately toss with the lemon juice to prevent browning. Add pistachios, feta, olives, mint, chives, olive oil, red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt. Gently toss to combine, taste and season with more salt to taste. Serve immediately.

I made an extra tart ahead so you could see the finished product as it cuts best w…

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I can’t believe I’m sharing another sweet recipe. As a follow up to my last post, I had been intending to share something celebrating spring ingredients. But this tart is so incredibly delicious and addictive that I simply cannot keep it from you for any length of time and especially not until it seems more seasonally appropriate.

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Anyone who’s tried this tart gasps before immediately eating another mouthful—it’s suitable anytime, yes, some friends even say they ate it for breakfast as they couldn’t wait for morning tea! And, it’s beyond mouth-watering when eaten with yogurt. I love it with coconut yogurt, but your favorite thick Greek is great too. I began the development of this recipe when Theo (my youngest) plucked a bag of salted Brazil nuts from the shelf at Tierra Farm a few weeks ago, I thought ok fine I’ll enjoy these instead of the raw ones I usually buy and use as my daily selenium intake (apparently one nut a day provides all the selenium you need). By the time we’d clambered into the car with our haul of nuts, I was dreaming of a salty, buttery tart. As I buckled Theo into his seat my mind was swirling with flavor combinations—should I add caramel-y dates or tart berry preserves? Or maybe both?

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Moist, fragrant and bright this cake is perfect for morning tea or snack time and since it’s made with yogurt, olive oil, almonds, maple and tea—it could even pass as a breakfast treat. I made this cake for my friends at Rishi Tea to feature their incredibly fragrant Earl Grey. I can’t take credit for the idea to pair a lemon olive oil cake with a bergamot infused glaze, it was theirs. Honestly, I wasn’t really that inspired to create this recipe—I felt like the combination of flavors wasn’t anything special but boy was I wrong! I decided to try infusing coconut oil with the Earl Grey allowing it to cool before sweetening it with raw honey—it is nothing short of addictive and I can’t wait to use it with other desserts.

For the cake I turned to the Easy Almond Cake chapter (in Whole Food Cooking Every Day) and started playing around with the ratios of flour to almonds and added yogurt, lemon and additional leavener.

It’s a lovely bright cake for anytime of year and great while we await fresh berries later in the spring.

Happy Spring!

Amy xo

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NOTES:

Since I happen to be sharing this recipe right before passover I was remembering flourless almond cakes I’ve eaten during passover. In my search to find a lemon one suitable for passover I found this post that could be helpful if you’re looking for a dessert recipe to serve. This glaze is great on most flourless cakes—especially citrus.

I know many of you will ask about egg substitutes and I’ve not yet tried replacing them but you could follow the vegan version for the Easy Almond Cake base recipe. Generally you need to increase the flours and the leavener when leaving out eggs. Egg free cakes that are also gluten free can’t take so much liquid, in my experience.

I like the rustic look of the cake baked in folded parchment paper but if you prefer you can cut a parchment circle for the base of the pan and oil the sides.

The glaze will thicken as it cools so I like to wait until it’s the consistency of maple syrup before pouring over the cooled cake, that way it won’t run off the sides too much.

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LEMON OLIVE OIL CAKE WITH EARL GREY GLAZE

Makes one 8-inch cake

Cake:

1 cup (100g) blanched almond flour

1 cup (100g) brown rice flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

½ cup maple syrup

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

⅓ cup whole milk yogurt or coconut yogurt

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon lemon zest (from about 2 lemons)

2 teaspoons vanilla

½ teaspoon flakey sea salt

Glaze:

¼ cup extra virgin coconut oil

2 tablespoons Rishi Tea & Botanicals Earl Grey tea leaves

¼ cup raw honey

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Make the cake:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Line an 8-inch cake pan with parchment paper, folding to fit the sides and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl combine the almond flour, brown rice flour, baking powder and baking soda. Use a whisk to combine and break up any lumps of almond flour; set aside.

In another medium bowl whisk eggs, add maple syrup, olive oil, yogurt, lemon juice, lemon zest and salt. Whisk well until emulsified and add dry mixture. Stir with a spatula until combined and pour into prepared pan. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a rack until cool enough to handle then carefully lift cake out with excess parchment paper. Allow cake to cool to room temperature before serving.

Make the glaze:

In a small pot over medium heat combine coconut oil and Earl grey tea leaves. Once mixture begins to simmer remove from heat and set aside for 10 minutes to steep. Strain into a small bowl and whisk in honey and lemon juice, continue whisking until emulsified. Set aside to cool to room temperature while the cake cools.

To serve:

Place your hand on the surface of cake and flip cake and cooling rack over, while holding the cake on your palm remove parchment paper and place cake bottom down on a cake plate. Pour glaze over surface of cake, spread it out so it drizzles down the sides. Slice and serve with tea. Left over cake keeps well for a couple of days in a sealed container in the fridge.

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Here is the video and recipe below. Today I substituted the parsnip with 1/2 cup diced daikon and 1/2 cup frozen sweet corn—which I almost forgot to add but, I think it ended up better than the original. I also tried cutting the mochi in slices and it works fine. As you can see it’s really easy.

Hope you mak…

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Ashwagandha (the adaptogenic herb) isn’t something I always have on hand but when my friend Grace from Furnace Creek Farm sends me some of hers—organically grown, dried and ground in Pennsylvania—I can’t help wanting to drink and eat it. At first I started adding it to my houjicha latte—the earthy, caramel-y flavors pair well and the subtle sweetness of my favorite nut milk balances it perfectly. Since not everyone has houjicha or homemade nut milk on hand I took to the challenge of creating something you could make in a moments notice—no soaking, straining or planning. Of course you need a good ashwagandha and your local herb shop or herbalist should have advice but if you can I highly recommend seeking out some from Furnace Creek Farm. I’ve never found one as fragrant, flavorful or enjoyable. Grace grows an impressive variety of herbs on her farm and sells them online here and at a couple of Farmer’s markets in New York City. If you make it to her farm stand you’ll be rewarded by the unique warm teas and elixirs she creates with her specialty roots and herbs. I first met her a decade ago at Union Square Farmers market whist shopping for clients and couldn’t help but linger and sample everything. I am still surprised by her ability to make such elevated herbal infusions from what she grows.

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Ashwagandha is an Ayurvedic herb that can help reduce cortisol levels and the way we process stress as well as boost energy and improve sleep. Since we’re experiencing a seasonal shift (as well as a lot of global stress) its feels like a good time for this warming and soothing drink. The little bit of spice and touch of sweet make it a perfect post lunch (or dinner) drink, it’s also caffeine free. In case you’re curious about the houjicha latte—I’ll post the recipe below too.

I’ll be cooking the Simple Vegetable Mochi Melt live this Thursday March 26^th @12:30 EST. Feel free to cook along and bring all your cooking questions. I hope to see you.

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I find these kinds old school macrobiotic recipes so soothing and comforting. I’m not sure if it’s the stickiness of melted mochi or the subtle and clean Japanese flavors? Maybe both? Part of the ease and simplicity of this recipe is that it can be made with veggies you probably have sitting in your fridge, if not you can substitute with other root vegetables or squash cup for cup. Frozen sweet corn makes a delicious addition too. I do love the way cabbage melts when sautéed and steamed but I’ve loved this recipe with leeks and chickpeas too. Cooked chickpeas or beans are great to stir in if you want the added protein. I used to make this in the oven in a casserole dish, roasting the vegetables first then adding cooked chickpeas and grated mochi before covering tightly to melt it. I made it that way recently and decided that the ease of a quick, nourishing stove top meal was more appealing.

Here I am assuming you know what mochi is—if not it’s a cooked and pounded sweet rice product that I buy vacuum packed at well stocked health food stores. You can find sprouted brown rice mochi—the sprouting increases nutrient absorption so it’s a great option if you have the choice. Being a cooked whole grain, I think it’s an ideal pantry staple as it takes minutes to cook—unlike brown rice. It also lasts years unopened.

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Back in the early 2000’s when I was living in the East Village you could find it fresh in the refrigerated section of a few local health food stores (anyone remember Prana?). I don’t recall the brand, but I do remember a cinnamon raison flavored mochi that you could slice and cook in a waffle iron—it was delicious. In those days I didn’t eat any concentrated sweeteners, so this was a treat!

I don’t always use mochi melted like in this recipe. Sometimes we cut it into

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If you’ve been around a Waldorf kindergarten for any period of time you have probably come across an oat bake, oat bar or baked oatmeal of some sort. It’s often on the weekly snack rotation. Ezra’s particular class had an apple crisp on Thursday’s and even though I wasn’t ever clear on how the class made it I knew it had tons of cinnamon because of his descriptions of the color. Fast forward a couple of years and my sister asked me if I’d ever had Ms Sonja’s (local beloved kindergarten teacher) oat bake—no? She sent me the recipe and I’ve been making it all winter tweaking it a little each time—with Ezra’s advice of course. Ms Sonja’s oat bake also has a huge amount of cinnamon so there must be something about kindy kids and the spice? I hold back a bit but I’ll let you decide how much to add.

I usually throw the ingredients of this oatmeal into the same pan that I’m cooking it in and its been working well. I do this as I’m prepping dinner and come morning time I’m in deep gratitude to my former self as I only need to heat the oven and slide it in for 30 minutes. Although we prioritize slow mornings with the boys this takes it to a whole new level and we can sip tea, read and snuggle on the couch for a longer stretch. Another addition to the ease and flow of the morning is the fact that it can be eaten warm from the oven, cool if we’re not ready to eat or cold if the book reading goes on and on. Leftovers go into the fridge and are then sliced for a snack—it holds together and travels well.

For decades I’ve ignored baked oatmeal recipes, I didn’t like the idea of egg in the oatmeal and imagined it having a custard-y texture—with one egg it isn’t noticeable and this recipe doesn’t have any egg at all. In this version, my favorite so far, I sauté the apples with the butter and cinnamon so its handy that the pan can be used like a skillet too. This is the one I have and love. I bought it when shooting the photos for my second cookbook—its perfect for the cauliflower bakes. I’ll show you the handy lid during our cooking class.

I will be talking through all the ways to make this next Friday February 27^th @12:30pm please join me and cook along too if you like!

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Valentine’s Day—the excuse I’m using to share this deluxe chocolate torte recipe. Really though I just want it to live here so you can access it anytime you need to make something truly special for someone you love. This torte manages to be both elegant and fragrant, also fudgy and chocolaty whilst remaining vegan, gluten free, whole grain and refined sugar free. I created it for Raaka Chocolate using their maple sweetened chocolate, which gives the perfect amount of sweetness and provides an earthiness that plays beautifully with the delicate rose and kiss of strawberry. It’s staggeringly delicious and is seriously mood-elevating—the ideal treat in my opinion.

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As fancy as this looks, you can make this torte with relatively little fuss once you have the ingredients on hand. Just be sure to give yourself enough time for the cooling and setting required. I promise everyone will adore it!

Sending love,

Amy xo

Notes:

This can be made with raspberry preserves and freeze dried raspberries instead of strawberries if you prefer.

Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature otherwise the coconut oil will solidify in clumps when combined with any cold ingredients.

Here I prefer to grind my own oats to make oat flour. Grind them until as fine as possible in a spice grinder then measure as you would flour. You can use store brought oat flour instead but I find it creates a slightly denser cake—it’s still delicious though!

Natural rose water has an extremely subtle flavor compared to regular rose water. Look for it in the beauty department of your health food store (check the ingredients to be sure it’s just rose distillate). If you can’t find it, you can use regular rose water but you’ll need to reduce the amount in the cake to ½ teaspoon and to only a few drops in the mousse.

Be sure to seek out organic rose buds, as anything else is not edible. If you can’t find them increase the rose water to taste in the mousse.

If you don’t have Raaka’s maple sweetened dark chocolate you can use your favorite dark chocolate but it’s worth seeking out as it’s hard to find naturally sweetened chocolate.

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Chocolate Rose Mousse Torte

Serves 10

Cake:

3 tablespoons ground flax seeds

½ cup unsweetened almond milk or other milk

½ cup plain apple sauce

½ cup maple syrup

¼ cup melted coconut oil, plus more to oil pan

1 tablespoon natural rose water * see note above

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

1 cup almond flour (super fine)

¼ cup brown rice flour

¼ cup finely ground rolled oats * see note

2 tablespoons coconut flour

½ cup cacao powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ cup unsweetened strawberry preserves

Chocolate mousse layer:

½ cup raw almonds, soaked overnight in about 2 cups filtered water

1 cup unsweetened shredded dried coconut

¼ cup organic dried rose buds, plus more to decorate* see note above

1 tablespoon maple syrup

4 teaspoons agar flakes

1 teaspoon natural rose water * see note

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ¼ cup (5 ounces) Raaka Maple Dark Baking Chocolate

¼ cup freeze dried strawberries, crushed

Make the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of a 9-inch spring form pan with a parchment paper circle and oil the sides; set aside.

Add ground flax and almond milk to a medium bowl, whisk to combine and set aside for 5 minutes. Add remaining wet ingredients and whisk to combine.

In another medium bowl add almond meal and break up any lumps with a whisk. Add rice flour, ground oats, and coconut flour then sift in cacao powder, baking soda and baking powder. Whisk to thoroughly combine then add to wet mixture. Use a rubber spatula to gently mix until batter is evenly combined—be careful not to over mix it. Pour into prepared cake pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack.

Make the mousse:

Drain and rinse almonds, place them in an upright blender with coconut and 2 cups of filtered water. Blend until smooth and strain through a nut milk bag (or several layers of cheese cloth). Compost pulp or save it for another use. Rinse out blender and set aside.

Measure nut milk to be sure you have 2 cups (if not add a little water) then pour into a 2-quart pot. Add rose buds, maple syrup and agar flakes. Whisk mixture then bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking frequently. Cover pot, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes or until agar is dissolved.

Place a small-medium strainer over the upright blender and strain rose mixture directly into blender, pressing the rose buds to extract as much milk as possible. Add rose water, vanilla and chocolate. Use a rubber spatula to press chocolate into hot milk mixture to fully submerge. Cover blender and set aside for 5 minutes to melt the chocolate, then blend on until velvety smooth. Remove cover and wait another 5 minutes while you get the cake base ready—don’t wait too long otherwise the mousse topping will begin to set.

Assemble the torte:

Gently spread strawberry preserves evenly over the surface of the cake. Pour mousse topping over the strawberry preserves. Once the mixture has stopped steaming place torte in refrigerator for at least 2 to 3 hours or overnight until it’s completely chilled and set.

Decorate the torte:

The texture improves if the torte can sit out for a couple of hours before serving. Run a palate knife around the edge of the torte and remove the sides of the pan. Place the crushed dried strawberries into a strainer and generously dust the surface of the torte. Decorate the edges with rose petals and serve. Any leftover torte keeps for up to 2 days in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

I didn’t intend this to be a Valentine’s inspired salad as I’ve been making it since the end of the year but here we are, it’s February tomorrow and this latest iteration of the the recipe is brilliant pink so why not? I planned to get it to you sooner, had it not been for another wave of colds and ear aches swooping into our home. And in the midst of the illnesses I weaned Theo—everything seemed to happen at once, nothing happened fast and in many ways we are still recovering. Oh right, and then we were digging ourselves out of two feet of snow.

The sleep deprivation these last few weeks along with the general dryness of winter has had me craving juicy foods and not just citrus but endive, fennel, radish and anything else that might help quench my thirst. Whist shopping at my local co-op the produce in this salad literally jumped out at me and I came home and made the first version with castelfranco. On the next couple of visits, I could only get endive and have since decided I actually like it better. I’ve added some notes on the different ways I’ve made it below.

Since the salad is so gloriously pink I think it’s a lovely idea to make it for Valentine’s Day—especially if you’ve got a fussy partner who quit sugar or a GF lover who may not eat any old sweet treat. Either way I hope it makes it into your kitchen as a part of a winter time meal soon.

Sending love + warmth,

Amy, xo

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Notes:

You can use castelfranco or pink lettuce in place of endive and skip the step of combining it with the dressing first (you don’t need to dye it and the leaves are harder to coat unlike the cut endive)

I like using coconut yogurt in the dressing as it added a little sweetness; however, I still needed more and added a touch of a very light grade maple syrup. I wouldn’t have done this if my olive oil wasn’t so bitter but it was and so the salad really needed a lift. I suggest tasting the dressing first.

One of my first versions of this salad had a shaved watermelon radish in the mix. When there wasn’t any at the shop, I left it out and didn’t miss it but the color definitely goes with the theme.

You may ask “why cook the beet?” You don’t have to; though I feel it balances out the crunchy, bitter notes perfectly. I have made it with a small, peeled raw beet that I shaved on the mandolin and it was still good. Cooked is better and of course more warming on these frigid days.

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Winter Salad

Serves 2 to 4

Dressing:

2 small beets, boiled whole until tender

2 tablespoons coconut yogurt or whole milk yogurt

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon brown rice vinegar

½ teaspoon maple syrup

Flaked sea salt

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salad:

175 g endive (about 3 small heads)

½ med bulb fennel (100g), shaved on a mandolin (save some fronds for garnish)

1 ruby grapefruit, supremed

1 ripe avocado, sliced

1 scallion, thinly sliced

Squeeze of lemon (Meyer lemon if you have any) and flaked salt to serve

Make dressing:

Slip skins off beets then thinly slice and set aside to cool completely.

In a small bowl whisk together the yogurt, vinegars, maple and a large pinch of salt. Drizzle in oil and whisk until emulsified. Stir in beets and set aside.

Break off large endive leaves and slice on an angle into 1-inch wide strips. Cut remaining endive heads on an angle about the same size and separate the leaves. Spread over a platter and top with shaved fennel.

Season the dressing to taste with extra salt if needed, spoon over fennel and toss well to combine. Scatter with grapefruit segments, sliced avocado and scallions. Garnish with some fennel fronds and squeeze a little lemon over the top, sprinkle with salt and serve.

We talked about my all-time favorite book for leaning about the benefits of whole foods. It’s Healing with Wh…

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I just refreshed my memory on the health benefits of adzuki beans and now I’m even more excited to eat these for lunch tomorrow (and for the weekend since no one else loves them in my house :)) I’ll share all thoughts during the class.

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I ended 2025 craving adzuki beans and their grounding and nourishing qualities. It’s hard to put ones finger on their unique flavor—it’s nutty and slightly sweet yes but it’s also incredibly earthy and in-the-best-way-possible a little dirt-like. Perhaps that’s why I find them so grounding and supportive when under the weather. However adzuki beans are explained, they’re unlike any other beans I eat.

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There’s an old healing macrobiotic tea recipe made from the cooking liquid of adzuki beans and I always find myself wanting to sip some of the liquid straight from the pot—I don’t feel the same way about other bean cooking liquids. In this particular tea you add a squeeze of ginger juice and a few drops of shoyu, the result is soothing and sustaining like a good broth. Adzuki bean cooking liquid and the beans themselves are also a great addition to this miso soup.

I was delighted to find a full jar at the back of my pantry and immediately soaked a cup some of which ended up in said miso soup and the rest in place of black beans in a “burrito bowl” for the boys. With all the usual toppings (salsa, guac, grated cheese, cultured sour cream etc) they didn’t notice them. I celebrated silently!

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After remembering my favorite recipe for adzuki (hint—it’s in my first book), I soaked more beans but this time with brown rice. If you’re in the mood for simple food it can be hard to stop eating this combination of rice and beans, only needing a few drops of tamari, some scallions, and toasted sesame seeds to hit perfection. Since I was the only person in the house swooning over the steaming pot, I knew I couldn’t get through it all so I shaped them into rice balls (onigiri) for later. The following day I cooked a few and devoured three for lunch. Having them shaped and stored in the fridge is such a gift for quick and nourishing meals. Served with sprouts or steamed veggies they make a fantastic and very easy and complete lunch or dinner.

When working with macrobiotic chefs in Amsterdam I was taught to make yaki onigiri which means grilled (or fried) rice ball in Japanese. We used the left over rice from the night before, adding

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I hope you all had a lovely holiday and are enjoying some deep rest this week. I’m popping in to share the promised savory, egg-free breakfast recipe that I think will become useful to have up your sleeve as we head into the new year. Your request for a savory and egg-free breakfast stayed with me as I’m always on the lookout for savory breakfasts beyond avocado or tomato toast.

I’ve been tweaking the batter recipe for weeks and finally landed on these amounts. I got some inspiration from a book I had packed away in the attic called The Chickpea Flour Cookbook; it has a southwestern omelet recipe that inspired the addition of ground flax and baking powder. When I worked at Angelica Kitchen we made lots of thin chickpeas pancakes with the addition of turmeric for a more pronounced golden color. However, I’d not tried making them fluffier by adding baking powder or adding

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