This autumn deliciousness is so easy to make that I feel a little weird even calling it a "recipe", especially since I decided to use canned pumpkin.  But let's be serious -- literally the only ingredient in the can is "pumpkin", which still allows me to feel all pure and clean, food-wise, so let's all shave 30 minutes off of this project by using it. 

(That being said, I know that canned pumpkin is not easy to find outside of the U.S.  So readers in, let's say, Australia can certainly puree freshly cooked pumpkin.  It will contain more liquid, even if drained well, and therefore require a longer simmering time on the stove.)

Use the final product over vanilla ice-cream or swirled into plain yogurt, spread it on toast or muffins for breakfast, slather it on waffles or pancakes instead of syrup.  Love it for all of the beta carotene, fiber, iron, and assorted other healthy bits.    


Prep Time:  None
Cooking Time:  30 minutes
Yield: About 3 Cups
Ingredients:
29 oz Can of Pumpkin (not “Pumpkin Pie Filling”!)
1 Cup Agave Nectar or Real Maple Syrup
¼ Cup Fresh Orange Juice
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
½ Tsp Ground Ginger
½ Tsp Ground Nutmeg
¼ Tsp Ground Cloves
¼ Tsp Sea Salt
½ Cup Finely Chopped Pecans
Directions:
Combine all ingredients except pecans in a large pot and bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Stirring often, continue to simmer for 30 minutes or until mixture is nicely thick.  (Turn the heat down to medium-low if it starts to get too bubbly and crazy.)

Meanwhile, heat a large pan over medium flame.  Add pecans and, stirring constantly, toast chopped pecans until they just begin to brown.  Remove from pan and set aside.

Take the pumpkin mixture off of the stove and stir in the pecans.   Let it cool, then transfer to a container, cover tightly and refrigerate. 

Kasha, or toasted buckwheat, is one of those items that comes across as very hippie-health-food-coop-bulk-bin, but is really way more flexible than you'd think.  It's ridiculously good for you (like all whole grains), cooks in 20 minutes (which beats brown rice by quite a margin) or can be soaked overnight for breakfast porridge, can be eaten cooked OR raw, and it has a flavor that reminds me of eating Sugar Smacks when i was a kid.  They're called Honey Smacks now and they certainly don't contain buckwheat, so I'm not sure if that makes any sense. 

The point is that kasha has a distinct flavor that, if you like it, will make you really love these cookies and, if you don't, will make you hate them.  (Hey, it's another opportunity for me to use parenthesis! And tell you that-- if you do hate kasha --you can use 3/4 cup chopped walnuts instead.)

For buckwheat lovers, these are dense, lemony and delicious with tea.  The uncooked kasha creates a surprising little crunch, like a Rice Crispy but more nutritious.  I should really go find a bowl of old-school cereal, because apparently that's what's on my mind.     

And as an FYI:  This recipe contains the ubiquitous whole wheat pastry flour and is therefore not for the gluten-intolerant, but buckwheat itself is not a type of wheat and therefore contains no gluten.      

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cooking Time: 10 Minutes
Yield:  About 30 Cookies
Ingredients:
3 Cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder
½ Tsp Sea Salt
1 ¼ Cups Maple Syrup or Agave Nectar
1 Large Egg
¼ Cup Lemon Juice
2 Tbsp Finely Grated Lemon Peel
½ Cup Whole Kasha (otherwise known as buckwheat)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda and sea salt.  In a separate bowl, beat together sweetener, egg, lemon juice and lemon zest.  Stir in the kasha.  Stir in the flour mixture, in two batches, until well combined.  Roll the dough into 1” balls and then press down with your thumb to create a fat little disk.  Place these onto a greased cookie sheet and cook for 10 minutes.  Cool, then store in an air-tight container.

I realize that this recipe may not have the glamour of Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies or the raw sex appeal of a Vanilla Bean Ricotta Bread, but let me tell you something:  This is a really awesome effing salad.   And, to get everything out of the way, I will immediately address that fact that "raw beets" sound undelicious by saying that they are amazing in shredded form.  And who wants to cook beets anyway?  It takes forever.  

To make this salad happen I am, once again, begging you to become familiar with the shredding thing on your food processor.  It will change your life and here's why:  Start shredding the vegetables you've got laying around in your fridge into convenient, easy to eat, more delicious than the sum of their parts salads...and you're doing something that's like juicing, but infinitely better because you keep the fiber.  I only stopped being intimidated by the shred function about a year ago and I can't stop making what I mentally refer to as "garbage salads" out of everything in my kitchen.

This combination is the best.  It's colorful, wildly nutrient-dense, naturally sweet in it's own way, and a gigantic hit every time I serve it.  And, for the busy hostess, it comes off as much more complicated than it actually is.  Which makes you look fancy. 

Prep Time:  10 minutes
Cooking Time:  none
Yield: 4-6 Servings
Ingredients:
3 Good-sized Raw Beets (or, like I used today, 2 mammoth beets and 1 little guy)
6 Medium-sized Raw Carrots
1 Small Onion, red or white
A Small Handful of Fresh Basil Leaves
¼ Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
Sea Salt and Black Pepper, to taste

Directions:
Shred the beets, carrots, onion and basil leaves.  You'll want to put the basil leaves in first so that the other vegetables force them through for a better shred.  Pour all of the shreds into a large bowl and throw the olive oil, vinegar, and a generous helping of sea salt and black pepper on top.  Toss, taste, and add more of any of the dressing ingredients if needed.  Serve. 

As part of my ongoing mission to invent scores of veggie burger recipes and avoid the weirdo boxed ones whenever possible, today I send the Spicy Shawn Burger out into the world.  Why are they called this?  Because my friend Shawn requested a burger with both spiciness and visible evidence of vegetables, and they have been named in his honor.  (Am I saying that Shawn is a spicy man or that the burgers themselves are spicy?  Who can say?)

Feel free to be sub in a different vegetable, if one of the listed choices is not around.  As always with your home-made veggie burgers, serve on some decent bread with colorful vegetables.  Use condiments if you like things like Ketchup.  And freeze the cooked leftovers for another day.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 40 minutes
Yield: 6 Burgers
Ingredients:
1 Medium-sized Carrot
1 Medium-sized Sweet Potato or Yam
1 Medium-sized Zucchini
1-1/2 Cups Cooked Cannellini Beans (or one can, drained and rinsed)
1 Cup Whole Grain Bread Crumbs
Whole Wheat Flour for Dredging
Spice Paste:
1 Tsp Caraway Seeds
1 Tsp Ground Coriander
1 Tsp Sea Salt
1 ½ Tbsp Chili Powder
1/4 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
2 Garlic Cloves, minced 
2 Tbsp Finely Chopped Fresh Mint
1 Tbsp Olive Oil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.   Grate the carrot, sweet potato and zucchini.  (This is infinitely easier if you use the shred function on a food processor, but you could also do it with a hand grater.)  Place all grated vegetables into a bowl and add the cannellini beans.  Mush them together with the vegetables, using your hands, until they are smashed and begin to bind together the rest of the ingredients.  In a small bowl, combine all ingredients for the spice paste.  Again using your hands, combine spice paste with the vegetable mixture until well blended.   Add in the bread crumbs and mash until blended.  Form into 6 burgers, dredge lightly in the flour, and place on a generously oiled baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, flip over and bake for another 20 minutes or until well crisped.

I started out wanting to make some healthed up version of classic peanut butter cookies, then ran into a bag of grain-sweetened chocolate chips in a health-food store this morning and decided to find a way to eat them.  So, here we are.

Like the last post, these are made with whole wheat pastry flour.  Unlike regular whole wheat flour, you can substitute it right into your baking with nary a concern.  (Oops, sorry to go all Gwyneth on you by using pretentious words to describe healthy recipes.  She owns that.)  Maybe someday soon you'll be able to find whole wheat pastry flour in a regular grocery store, but until that day comes -- get it at the health-food store.

*As for the chocolate chips themselves, I've mentioned before that you can buy grain-sweetened (which refers to brown rice syrup, a macrobiotic favorite with subtle sweetness), dairy-free (not necessary, but these cookies are dairy-free in every other way-- so it helps if you want your cookie to stay consistent) chocolate chips in your local (...wait for it...) health food store.  OR you can use regular chocolate chips and remain satisfied with the fact that the dough itself contains no butter, no refined sugar and no refined flour.  Because no one's trying to win a whole food medal, right? 

Prep Time:  7 Minutes
Cooking Time:  10-12 Minutes
Yield:  About Two Dozen Cookies
Ingredients:
1-1/2 Cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
½ Tsp Sea Salt
1 Tsp Baking Powder
¾ Cup Maple Syrup
½ Cup Unsweetened, Natural Peanut Butter
1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Large Egg
1 Heaping Cup of Chocolate Chips*

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a large baking sheet.  In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder.  In a large bowl, combine maple syrup, peanut butter, and vanilla extract.  Beat in the egg.  Stir in the flour mixture until well combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Shape the mixture into balls, about ¾” in size, then place on the greased baking sheet.  Press them down with a fork, first in one direction, then the other.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden.   Let cool completely before eating them, because they taste better that way. 

I received the inspiration recipe for this from a reader named Kristina, who is awesome for throwing me challenges like this. 
It was all about butter and sugar, which I can only assume was delicious...but probably also guilt-inducing, sugar-crash-causing, and straight up fattening.  With this version (as with all healthier versions of things), you can eat more of it!  I am going to be honest and tell everyone that I put a generous slab of butter onto one of my late-night slices, not because it needed it, but more because it was there and I knew there was none inside it.  And THAT is the beauty of healthy cooking -- choice.  Hehe.

Anywho, I'm really happy with the results of this bake-over. (Like a make-over, but with baking!...and I'm shocking myself by both writing this and then -- if I leave it in the paragraph -- actually putting such cheesiness out into the world.)  If you're looking for a breakfast item with subtle but tasty sweetness, a way more decadent texture than should be possible without butter, and a damn nutritious list of ingredients, this is your guy.  

Note:  Whole wheat pastry flour, as opposed to regular whole wheat flour, is a must here.  Find it at your local health food store or well-stocked supermarket.   

Prep Time:  15 minutes
Cooking Time:  40 Minutes
Yield: 1 Loaf
1-1/2 Cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
2-1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Sea Salt
1-½ Cups Whole Milk Ricotta
½ Cup Real Maple Syrup
3 Large Eggs
½ of a Vanilla Bean
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a 9-inch loaf pan. 
In medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk together ricotta, maple syrup, and eggs.  Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with the blunt side of a small knife, then beat them into the batter along with the vanilla extract.  Stir dry ingredients into the ricotta mixture, scraping down the sides as you go.  Stir until just well mixed.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth top with a spatula. Tap pan on counter a few times to remove air pockets.  Put cake in oven and let bake for 15 minutes, then turn 180 degrees to ensure even browning. Lower the temperature to 325°F and let bake until cake springs back when lightly touched, the sides of the cake have pulled away from the sides of the pan, and a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 25 minutes more.  Let cool completely, then serve.
  

The other night we had a small Mediterranean feast, which included things like falafel with tahini sauce, hummus, and toasted pita with garlic and olive oil.  For the sake of contrasting, cooling freshness--we also had tabbouleh.  I love all things within this particular food genre, but tabbouleh has had, for me, a tendency to bore the old tastebuds...mostly because it tastes like parsley, which doesn't exactly smack you in the face with flavor.  But you know what's not boring?  Sundried tomatoes in oil.  Not boring at all.  It turns out the combination of flavors is delightfully zingy, quite pleasing to the eye and, perhaps most importantly, easy to throw together.   

As I was making everything, it occurred to me that there are several common ingredients running through this collection of foods...and that this meal would be a bit like drinking a vat of lemon juice and olive oil with some chickpeas for protein.  Except combined in a MUCH more texturally pleasing way.  And, although that may be strangely accurate, the Mediterranean feast was an amazing and delicious dinner for a warm evening.

Prep Time:  10 Minutes, plus about two inactive hours
Cooking Time:  None
Yield:  About 4 Cups
Ingredients:
1 Cup Bulghur Wheat
2 Tbsp Good Olive Oil
Juice of 2 Large Lemons
1 Clove Garlic, minced
1 ½ Tsp Sea Salt
½ Large Cucumber, diced
1 Bunch Scallions, white and light green parts, sliced
½ Cup Chopped Sun-dried Tomato, packed in oil
Sea Salt and Black Pepper, to taste

Directions:
Combine bulghur with 1-1/2 cups of boiling water, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and sea salt.  Stir, cover and let sit for 45 minutes.  Stir in cucumber, scallions, sun-dried tomatoes, sea salt, and black pepper.  Refrigerate for at least one hour (longer is better) and serve.  

There is a strange phenomenon going on in the foreign food aisle of the grocery store and I think we should all take advantage of it: 
The cheaper you buy your salsa, the more likely that will contain nothing but whole foods, all ground up and mixed together.  Expensive, more fabulously flavored salsas not only contain sugar, which seems kind of unnecessary, but they also cost more, which is not so great either. 

The drawback is that cheap salsa will occasionally taste like green peppers in watered-down ketchup.  So, for your consideration, I present a way to take advantage of the benefits of cheap salsa, make a condiment so nutritious you could conceivably eat it as a meal, and impress your friends at parties.  On that third point, I’m not exaggerating.  This mixture brings on the compliments.

As for the benefits...
Lest we forget, cilantro is a leafy green and therefore has all of the goodness of the genre:  fiber, phytonutrients, and -- as an added bonus of this particular herb -- a reported ability to assist in removing toxic metals from our delicate systems.  Like mercury from your fillings. 

Serve it with chips, next to any taco or burrito, over a salad, or – as I did tonight – with simple cheese and caramelized (ok, burnt) leek quesadillas.   

Prep Time:  5 Minutes
Cooking Time:  None
Yield: A Few Cups
1 Jar of Plain, Inexpensive Salsa
1 Cup of Corn Kernels (or one of those little cans, drained and rinsed)
1 ½ Cups of Cooked Black Beans (or one can, drained and rinsed)
1 Bunch of Cilantro, rinsed and chopped
Juice of 2 Limes

Directions:
Dump the salsa into a large bowl and add the remaining ingredients.  Mix well.  Serve immediately or, for better results, let it sit for a few hours in the fridge to let the flavors combine. 

Chutney is good to have around because it turns bites of food that are maybe a little bland into exotic, flavor-filled festivals of zippiness.  This one is inspired from a recipe in Flavors of India by Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff, with several modifications -- like the plumping of the raisins, which makes for a softer texture.  I’m serving it tonight next to a basic stir fry, like the food version of a glittering accessory to a nice but unremarkable outfit.

This particular chutney is good because:
1. it takes only moments to make 
2. it is extremely yummy 
3. perhaps most importantly, it is made of common ingredients that will go with a variety of meals, snacks, and sandwiches    
  
Prep Time:  10 minutes
Cooking Time:  None
Yield: About 1 Cup
1 Cup Raisins
¼ Cup Water
1 Tsp Fresh Chopped Ginger
1 Tsp Molasses
¼ Tsp Cayenne Pepper
Juice of 1/2 Lemon

Directions:
Submerge the raisins in very hot water and let them soak for 5 minutes, then drain.  Blend all ingredients, including raisins, in a blender or food processor until chunky but well mixed.  Serve as a sweet/spicy addition to meals and snacks, with a cheese platter, over a baked sweet potato, or as an exotic touch to a sandwich.
Keeps for two weeks, refrigerated.

My mission in life is, apparently, to turn every food that I like into a whole-food-ified veggie burger.  I do this because any ingredient combination will become both adorably portable and generally welcomed by humanity once put into burger form.  Today, I made a burger out of macaroni and cheese, so I should probably be ashamed of myself.  

Thing is, these are so much healthier than they sound.  They're mostly beans, yet there's so much surface area on them that the cheese on the top and bottom of each one gets crispy in the same delicious way as the top of a pan of regular mac and cheese.  The whole grain couscous, which is a miniscule little form of pasta, steps in as the 'macaroni' and blends right into the burger.  Dropped onto a slice of whole grain bread, topped with some crispy, fresh vegetables and served with sauteed spinach, they're about as nutritious a context as macaroni and cheese has seen in awhile.          

For extra zing, feel free to add a few cloves of minced garlic and/or some red pepper flakes to the mixture.    

Prep Time:  10 minutes
Cooking Time:  25 Minutes
Yield: Four Burgers
1/3 Cup Uncooked Whole Wheat Couscous
1 Tsp Olive Oil
¾ Tsp Sea Salt, divided
1-3/4 Cups Cooked Cannellini Beans (or 1 Can, drained and rinsed)
1 Cup Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese, preferably organic
1/3 Cup Whole Grain Panko Bread Crumbs (or whatever kind you’ve got)
Ground Black Pepper, to taste
A Very Generous Pinch of Nutmeg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Generously grease a cookie sheet with olive oil and set aside. 
Bring ½ cup of water to a boil.  Stir in olive oil, ¼ teaspoon sea salt, and the couscous.  Immediately cover, remove from heat, and let it sit for five minutes.  Fluff with a fork when done. 
In a large bowl, combine couscous with remaining ingredients, including the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt.  Mash all of it together with your hands until most of the beans are smashed and everything is well combined. (And may I suggest not mixing in the breadcrumbs as well, so that they end up in only some of the bites-- like a little surprise?) Divide into four parts and form into flat patties.  Place the patties onto the greased cookie sheet and bake for 25 minutes, flipping about halfway through. 
Serve on a whole grain bun or whole grain toast with a slice of tomato, sprouts, baby spinach or whatever other fresh vegetables you’ve got.