So with the new year, I have a newly redesigned website (check out the link to the Tasting Health Homepage in the sidebar!) and with it a new blog. This page will remain active to access archives, but any future musings will be found at my Wordpress site. I hope you all take the trip over there with me and continue to read my ramblings.

~ F

blog @ tastinghealth

As I always do, I did some messing around in the kitchen on a breath of inspiration from a recent meal out. I blogged about Sofra Bakery and Cafe recently (ok, last week), and made mention of their moroccan style lentils with caramelized onions and greens. Well as I was looking for something to cook for lunch today to refuel after an hour spent shoveling snow, I noticed that lo and behold, I had lentils, chard, and onions all coexisting comfortably in my kitchen.

In true Fiona style, I threw everything in a pan at once and immediately started eating the whole mess with a ladle. No, not really. Really what I did was first caramelize the onions in a little bit of olive oil, a splash of white balsamic, and a drizzle of agave nectar, adding the chopped chard when the onions were done to my liking and leaving it covered over a low heat for a minute or two while the greens wilted. I then tossed in a can of organic lentils (Westbrae Natural - they are relatively low in sodium for a canned product), added some crushed red pepper flakes, salt, black pepper and a couple more splashes of the vinegar and turned up the heat to toss it all around for a few minutes while the excess liquid burned off. I was all about the onions today and wasn't planning on adding garlic, but when I tasted the dish it needed some so I tossed in a shake of garlic powder. Next time I'll use fresh and start the whole thing off with a little in the pan fo' sho'.

It was good. I mean really, really good. Damn tasty. I think I've also blogged about lentils, so I won't go on and on about folate and breasts again, but rest assured the little buggers are good for you. It was some quick and easy one pan cooking, and I hope you enjoy it if you decide to give it a try.

Wow.

A few weeks ago, my roommate brought home a menu for Sofra, the new cafe and bakery from the owners and chefs of Oleana. It is located at One Belmont Street, which is conveniently right on my way to work - where I was going less than a week later when I quickly popped in there and grabbed one of their Mezze that I had been daydreaming about since I'd seen the menu at my house, the lentils with caramelized onions and greens (oh but to decide between that and the whipped celery root with almond and garlic! Or the green olive and walnut salad!! It was a savory food lover's dream come true, but I was in a rush and went with the lentils - which were delicious of course).

Today, after my first run in more than just a few weeks (blame the holidays and a wonky ankle), I went in there again with Miss Leah PB, intent on getting a true lunch... and oh boy did I. The line was long, which was just as well because I spent the entire wait agonizing over whether to get the chicken or the lamb shwarma flatbread sandwich. I went with the chicken, butternut squash and leek option, and was not disappointed. In a bold move, I also decided to try a side of the parsnip hummus with tahini brown butter (parsnip hummus!!!), and grabbed a soy latte to sip while we waited. And let me say again, there was a wait. Nothing unreasonable, and I mean not one bit to sound as if I'm trying to sneak some criticism into my little review.... I'm building a small shrine to them in my home, really. I'm only trying to illustrate how insanely popular this place is already. Anyway, we waited and sipped, and finally went on our merry way with our purchases. Upon arriving at home and digging in, my first thought was that the sandwich was like butter... absolutely everything just melted in my mouth in the most delicious way imaginable. When I tried the parsnip hummus, I thought maybe that it was even better than the sandwich - but then I took another bite of the sandwich and decided that was my favorite, and so on and so forth. Heaven isn't too far away.

Sofra also sells some of the Oleana spice combinations, and a few of their dishes are pre-packaged in a cold case for the grab and go crowd. They have all sorts of sweets too, which I have yet to try (I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but a rose almond cake caught my eye, as did some homemade dulce de leche). They do breakfast until 11 Monday through Friday and until 3 on the weekends. Rather than waxing philosophical on how amazing their turkish breakfast must be (or the morning bun with orange blossom glaze?) I'll just post the link for any one who's interested in perusing their menu, it's replaced US Weekly as my light reading of choice these days. The also have signs plugging their CSA, signs advertising some cooking classes on Sundays beginning this month, and their clean up station has bins for dishes, recycling, paper goods AND compost, with multiple notes scattered about encouraging people to only take what they need.

All in all, I highly recommend it. In fact if anyone would like to meet me there for breakfast sometime this week, I'm game!


www.sofrabakery.com

The title, of course, is in reference to my list of "things I don't really like but try to eat on occasion because they are good for me". Beets actually rank at about #2, as the list really doesn't extend beyond 4 or 5 items. What can I say... I like food.

But beets... I have a love/hate relationship with beets. I like beet greens, and I hate waste. I also tend to love the accouterments that come along with beets in restaurants (goat cheese, greens, nuts, etc.), even though I stand firm in my belief that they make your greens taste like they were dragged through a muddy puddle and thrown straight onto your plate. But in small doses, with the tang of some chevre and dressed with something vinegary, I can handle them like quite the grown up. I do prefer the golden ones to the red, although then I begin to get anxious about what sort of delicious red/purple antioxidants I might be missing by passing on the darker ones until I take a deep breath and think "W.W.M.P.D... What Would Michael Pollan Do?". Cook and eat, damn it (although he probably would have dug them out of his own garden, but my back porch just isn't going to cut it).

What I did with my (golden) beets tonight was boil them and dice them. Yummy, eh? Not really. But the greens - along with some kale - were sauteed with some olive oil and garlic, and then tossed with a little salt, some crushed red pepper flakes and a splash or two of white balsamic vinegar. I tossed the unexciting boiled, diced beets in the mix and paired it all with some crusty whole grain toast smeared with peppery goat cheese, and my dinner was actually quite nice.

Look at me... eating all my vegetables like a good girl.

If you have a quick minute and a spare dollar, check out the link below. The Federation of Mass Farmers Markets is trying to reach their fundraising goal before the end of the fiscal year on 12/31. Your donation is tax deductible, and will go to a non-profit dedicated to helping serve and strengthen the 170+ farmers markets throughout Massachusetts.
You can donate by going to their website.

http://www.massfarmersmarkets.org