How to make, use, and freeze fresh pesto
Basil pesto is delicious, but the price of prepared pesto is alarming: expect to pay $5 or more for as little as half a cup! It’s amazing how something so expensive is so easy to make.
Fresh basil is easy to grow in the garden or on your windowsill. Take a pile of leaves, add some garlic, olive oil, and turn a cup of homemade pesto into three delicious meals - some left over to freeze for later. If you grow your own basil, ingredients for all three meals won’t cost much more than that measly little jar of pesto from the supermarket.
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Spring is the time when vegetable lovers pause and bow in homage to the “king of vegetables.” Asparagus is at its peak right now, and this member of the lily family is a delicious, nutritious, and low-calorie food. The versatile green shoots can be steamed, stir-fried, grilled, or pickled.
However you eat it, asparagus is a tasty powerhouse of amino acids, phytochemicals, fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and more. Oh, and it’s also fat and cholesterol-free.
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Use Herbs and Spices to Get a Smoky Taste Without Smoked Meat
Southern cooking, also called “country cooking” or “soul food,” often describes foods loaded with fat, salt, and pork – sometimes all three in the same dish! Traditional dishes include fried chicken, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, and fried squash. See a pattern? Fried, fried, fried. What’s not fried is likely to be cooked with bacon or a chunk of fatback as “seasoning.”
That “seasoned” taste is so common that many people can’t imagine cooking beans without side meat. As Scarlett O’Hara notes in Gone With the Wind: “Black-eyed peas are no good without bacon. There’s no strength to them.”
Here, as in so many areas, Scarlett was wrong.
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1. Antioxidants:
Dark chocolate is high in antioxidants which destroy the free radicals your body digests or is exposed to in the environment. Free radicals come from pollutants in the air, medicines and processed food. It’s no wonder we haven’t been taught more about free radicals as they are the cause of heart disease and different types of cancer.
A Vegetarian Passover Seder Is Easier Than You Think!
During Passover, just buying kosher food isn’t enough. The food must also be “kosher for Passover,” which means it doesn’t include any leavening agents. Also, its storage and preparation must be closely monitored and certified by rabbinic authorities. From that basic requirement, things quickly get more complicated.
Sephardic Jews of Middle Eastern, Greek, Yemenite, or Spanish heritage omit any foods with leavening or grain products, but eat rice and beans during Passover. Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern European heritage don’t eat rice, corn, or beans (called kitniyot) because 13th century Jewish authorities ruled that those products could be ground into flour and used like bread products. There was also the danger of contamination since those products were often stored in bags that had held wheat or flour.
Here’s a great recipe for all you vegetarians who also honor dietary rules during Passover.
This recipe uses a basic vegetable broth. If you don’t want to make your own broth, use 1 – 2 vegetarian vegetable broth cubes per 2 cups water. Note however, that it will significantly increase the sodium content of the soup.
Golden Vegetable Broth
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