Soup So Easy You (Almost) Don’t Know You’re Cooking

Roasted Carrot Soup with Ginger, Lentils, and Dukkah The resurgence of the Covid-19 virus has kept many people in the kitchen cooking more than they choose. As a friend said last week, “I am so sick of cooking!” Even fanatical cooks like myself need a break from the kitchen on occasion, but local restaurants are […]

Honor Your Heart with a Bowl of Ribollita

February is National Heart Month It’s nearly Valentine’s Day – time to celebrate friends and loved ones.  It’s also time to honor your heart. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women and an elevated blood cholesterol level is a major risk factor (1,2). Food and lifestyle choices matter. Eating […]

End of Summer Gazpacho

It is Gazpacho season in many parts of the world and last week it came to Seattle. In nearly 20 years of Northwest living I’ve served cold soup twice – once last Saturday. The thermometer was crawling into the 80s, toasty for my soon-to-arrive  guests. I seized the opportunity to capture the essence of end-of-summer […]

Bank Healthy Meals for the Holidays

    Simple Split Pea Soup Ready or not, holidays are on the horizon.  Decorations are on sale and lights are illuminating houses and businesses. I even saw a Christmas tree in the window of a home.  The first step to eating healthfully over the holidays is to bank a few meals in your freezer […]

Lactose-Free….Or Not

Pepper Jack & Vegetable Chowder   You don’t have to be on a low-lactose diet to enjoy lactose-free milk.  A good friend introduced me to lactose-free milk in coffee because it tastes sweeter than regular milk.    Recently my nutrition students made the same discovery during a sampling of lactose-free and regular milk.  The word […]

Super-Squash for Fall Cooking

Red Lentil Dal with Winter Squash and Tarka Winter squash is often called a “super food” because of its excellent nutrient profile.  A cup of butternut squash cubes, baked, has a mere 56 calories, 4.5 grams of dietary fiber, over 300% of the Daily Value (DV) for vitamin A, 35% of the DV for vitamin […]

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

 Three-Onion Potato & Cauliflower Soup  Growing up, I looked forward to St. Patrick’s Day because my mom would place a potato-shaped candy from See’s next to our plates at the dinner table. It was dusted with cocoa and studded with pine nuts for the eyes, a perfect, sweet imitation of a potato – a kid’s […]