turmeric

Curried Chickpeas

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. organic coconut oil
• 1 tsp. turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. coriander
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. black pepper or to taste
• 1 tsp. sea salt or to taste
• 2 tsp. chopped ginger root
• Optional 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
• Optional: 1/2 tsp. ground cloves (I didn’t add this, but it sounds like a nice flavor)
• Optional: 2-3 chopped garlic cloves
• 1 can of chick peas (or soak dried chick peas overnight and cook before using in the recipe)
• Garnish: Parsley or cilantro
• Optional: chopped red onion
• Optional: lemon juice
• Optional: chopped tomatoes – maybe I’ll add chopped tomatoes when they are season (August) – that’s the only time I eat them

In a saucepan or a wok, warm the coconut oil and the spices. After a few minutes, add the garlic, ginger and chickpeas and coat well. Cook for about 10 minutes. The original recipe suggested crushing a few of the chickpeas. Top with parsley or coriander and optional lemon juice, chopped onions and/or chopped tomatoes. You can serve immediately or reheat the next day. Delicious on rice.

I also made the same recipe with cubed zucchini – I may post that recipe next week.

Spicy Popcorn

My daughter had her palate extender (an orthodontic device that resides in one’s mouth) removed this week; in celebration, we bought and made popcorn. One isn’t allowed to have popcorn (or chewy, goopy food) with a palate extender (or with braces), so it was exciting to once again be sharing popcorn. The popcorn my daughter picked out came in a bag, and I kept eating it. In order not to eat all of *her* popcorn, I made my own.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup plain kernels of popcorn
• 1 paper bag, lunch bag size
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. turmeric, garlic powder, cumin, and pepper
• 3 tsp. organic butter
• 1 bunch steamed broccoli

Put the popcorn kernels in the bag and fold it closed. Put it in the microwave – ours has a popcorn setting. When it is done popping, remove the bag. Prepare the butter with the spices and salt by melting it in a saucepan or in a bowl in the microwave. Pour it over the popcorn.

So why the steamed broccoli? After you finish all the popcorn, you are going to enjoy mopping up the spicy butter remnants with a piece of broccoli!

Red + Yellow = Orange

I added a beet to my turmeric soup, and it turned orange. OK, maybe it turned a brighter redder orange from the pale yellowy turmericky orange it had been before?

Turmeric Soup

Baila’s got a whole bunch of recipes at the latest Kosher Cooking Carnival.

I’ve been playing in my crock pot again, and this time it’s called Turmeric Soup. It doesn’t look terribly different than my Farmer’s Market Soup.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic
• Turmeric, about 1 tsp.
• Pepper, about 1/2 tsp. and salt to taste
• 1 sweet potato or yam
• 1 can of beans (I used cannellini, but chickpeas or northern beans will work, too)
• 3 leaves of kale

Saute the onions in olive oil until translucent. Sprinkle generously with turmeric, pepper and salt. Put chopped sweet potato in crockpot. Put in the can of beans. Put in the sauteed onions and garlic. If you feel up to waiting just before it’s almost ready, you can add the kale right before everything is tender. But if you are lazy like me, just add it at the same time as the other ingredients.

I let it cook for about 4 hours, and it tasted delicious.

Turmeric

Any of you like turmeric?

This spice is discussed in Anticancer: A New Way of Life, the book I reviewed yesterday. It has been shown in cell cultures to be effective against cancer cells. However, it must be mixed with pepper in order to be effective. Ideally, it should be dissolved in oil (olive, canola or linseed oil, preferably).

Anyone have some good ideas of what to do with turmeric? I mixed with some kasha (also had mushrooms and onions) that I made on Sunday night, and it tasted delicious.