In international recognition of the importance of legumes as a food group, the United Nations declared 2016 the Year of the Pulse. Its an honorific shout out to the large family of good-for-you dried legumes that include split peas, or lentils, or dal, as they are called in India. These pulses grow prodigiously around the … Continue reading Green Split Pea Soup with Turmeric-Wilted Onions
Dried beans and rice together in a dish is a staple food of many cuisines around the world. Caribbean black beans and rice (Christians and Moors), Cajun red beans and rice, Indian dals with rice, Southwestern pinto beans and rice, Japanese sweet adzuki beans and rice pudding, their names ring as poetic as they are … Continue reading Wild Rice and Chick Peas with Pea Sprouts and Kumquats
Around the world, in colors ranging from brown to yellow, green, white (!), and red, lentils provide culinary goodness across the courses–appetizers to entrees. A salad/side dish of lentils with scallions and feta cheese is by now almost iconic in my repertoire, starting from the beginning of my shop, Pig-by-the-Tail, to countless picnics, backyard barbecues, … Continue reading French Lentils with Scallions and Feta Cheese
Seduced by a tiny potted quinoa plant at my local nursery, its two slim stalks bursting with edible seeds, I was smitten enough to purchase it, ignoring the fact that quinoa is native to the high Peruvian Andes Mountains, 10,000 feet above sea level. I brought it home and planted it in my not-very-high above … Continue reading Quinoa and Fried Egg Burrito with Ancho Chili Sauce
After a brief romance with pressure cooking in the 1940s and 1950s, American cooks basically shelved the whistling pot that seemed to threaten “exploding” at any moment. And sometimes it did; stories of split pea soup or some such spewing to the ceiling when the cooker was overfilled or overheated are legendary in the annals … Continue reading Touting the Pressure Cooker: Risotto
In a moment of extreme enthusiasm one May I planted two Thompson seedless grape vines in my backyard in Oakland, California. That was because stuffed grape leaves, from my Armenian heritage, are a true comfort food for me, right up there with mac and cheese and homemade tacos from my mother’s Southwest side of the … Continue reading The Grape Vine: Tendril to Wood
The Wise Kitchen 