A long holiday weekend either means several days packed with travel and exciting activities, or an opportunity to stay around the house and catch up on much needed rest. This 4th of July weekend, I chose the later. Intentionally staying at home (which takes a lot of intention for me) and chilling out in front of the TV and with a good book also gave me the chance to work on some recipes I had swirling around in my mind.

First up, blueberry scones made with whole-grain pastry flour. Last summer, I shared a recipe for whole-grain blueberry muffins using seasonal, locally grown blueberries. Well, it’s blueberry season again, so take advantage!

Blueberries are packed with good nutrition – anti-oxidants (vitamin A and vitamin C), fiber, and only 84 calories per cup. I mostly prefer to eat blueberries straight from the container rather than cooking with them because, like most fruit, they taste delicious all on their own and it’s healthier to eat them raw. However, every now and then, I do like them in a breakfast or tea-time pastry such as muffins or scones.

My recipe is adapted from a recipe for cranberry-walnut scones that I got from the little recipe booklet that came with my KitchenAid food processor. By the way, if you don’t have a food processor, get one! Every kitchen should have one, as it makes many culinary tasks so much easier and quicker — sifting flour, grating and slicing vegetables, even kneading dough.

So with this recipe, it calls for a food processor, but you can still make these scones even if you don’t have one by using a hand-held pastry blender or two knives to cut the butter into the flour. Enjoy!

Blueberry Scones
Adapted from a recipe for Cranberry-Walnut Scones by Kitchen Aid

NOTE: If you don’t have a food processor, then you can cut the butter into the flour with two knifes or a hand-held pastry blender. Everything else you can do by hand with a fork or rubber spatula.

1-1/4 cup organic whole grain pastry flour
3/4 cup organic unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons organic cane sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon
1/3 cup organic unsalted butter, cut in to small cubes
(Keep in refrigerator until ready to use)
1 egg yolk or 1 flax seed egg replacer
(Combine 1-1/2 tsp flax meal +3 tsp water and let sit for 2 minutes)
2/3 cup organic whipping cream
1 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In large bowl food processor, combine flours, baking powder, salt, sugar and cinnamon and pulse about 5 times to combine.  Add the cold cubed butter to the bowl of the food processor, cover and pulse about 5 times for 2 seconds each to obtain a fine crumbly mixture.

In a small bowl, combine the whipping cream and flax mixture or egg yolk and stir well. Drizzle the cream mixture over the ingredients in the food processor, cover and process for about 5 seconds to obtain a chunky crumbly mixture.

Transfer the scone dough into a large bowl and gently incorporate the blueberries into the dough with your hands, being sure not to mash the blueberries (or at least not very many).

Lightly flour a large cutting board or flat surface and turn the dough out onto the board. With your hands, flatten and pat the dough into a 1″ think circle about 7″ wide. Then with a floured knife, make four long diagonal cuts across the flattened dough to create 8 wedges. Place the wedges spaced out on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 18 – 20 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.

A nutritionist and 20-year vegan with a master’s of public health nutrition from New York University, Tracye is co-founder of BlackVegetarians.org and the Black Vegetarian Society of New York. She shares the message in her new book that a plant-based diet without meat, dairy or eggs, is the best for Black women’s health.

If you’re already thinking, “Forget it! I’ve got to have my meat, ice cream, butter, or cheese!” read on. Tracye has a message that everyone can benefit from. She busts the nutritional myths about protein and dairy, and will definitely have you thinking twice about your food choices. The fact is, our health is at stake and we may need to consider revolutionary changes to reclaim wellness … by any greens necessary.

Why do you think the vegan diet is the best choice for people, especially black women?

A vegan diet can help you live longer. It can help you prevent and even reverse chronic diseases. The world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals agrees that a plant-based diet is the healthiest. The information is not disputed; it’s just not widely promoted. A vegan diet is not just about living longer and disease free – it can also improve your quality of life, and it can help protect the planet.

Black women, we’re fabulous, but we have the worst health [among other demographics of women]. We’re in a crisis situation, so we can’t tip toe around this issue. Eighty percent of us are overweight and 50 percent of us are obese. We’re the heaviest group in the nation and we have the diabetes and other chronic diseases that come with that.

Also, I want to say something about children. The issue with our kids is that our diet or what we eat is not just about black women, but it’s obviously going to be about our families as well because we’re feeding them. So when black women improve our health, we’re improving the health of our families, our partners, our children, and our communities. Our health can be improved by something as simple and profound as eating a plant-based diet.

In the introduction of the book, you talk about “liberating the way one thinks about food.” Explain what you mean by that. Why do some of us need to change the way we think about food?

What I mean is that if you change your mind, your mouth will follow. What you eat starts not on your plate, but in the way you think. So people believe that they have enough information to make informed choices about what they’re eating, but the reality is we make choices based on food advertising.

The food industry spends more than $35 billion a year to dictate what we choose to eat. So, most of us are not making informed choices right now. We’re making choices based on increasing the profit of the food industry rather than to improve our health.

So what I want to do is provide information about what we know at this point is the healthiest way to eat — plant-based foods — so people can make more informed decisions. For me, it is not so much that I want people to be vegan, but I want folks to have the best information to decide what to do. It is absolutely crucial that we have the information to make those better choices. That’s liberating.

What would you say to someone who doesn’t want to be or isn’t ready to be vegan or vegetarian, but who still wants to eat healthfully?

I would say, start where you are and add more plant-based foods to your current diet. So for example, try to eat three pieces of whole fruit a day, and try to have vegetables on your plate at least twice a day. The majority of Americans don’t do that. You’ll see huge improvements just starting there. If you’re eating white rice or pasta, try brown rice or whole wheat pasta; eat whole grains instead of refined grains.

So often, those of us who are not vegetarian find it kind of odd to think about not eating animals because of animal rights or reasons of compassion. What can you say that will help people to consider a vegetarian or vegan diet for these reasons?

That’s a great question. Dick Gregory, who influenced me and thousands of others to become vegetarian, actually started being a vegetarian because of his involvement in the civil rights movement and his belief in non-violence. He extended that belief to animals. As I quote in my book from Dick Gregory’s memoir, Callus on My Soul, he wrote:

“Under the leadership of Dr. King, I became totally committed to non-violence, and I was convinced that non-violence meant opposition to killing in any form.”

For many people, vegetarian or veganism is a natural extension of being against violence, including the violence historically committed against black people.

Lastly, what are some of your favorite recipes from the book?

My favorite recipes in the book are the Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake, Spicy Black Beans, and All Hail the Kale Salad. The All Hail the Kale Salad, in particular, has been the most popular dish at potlucks I bring it to.

Check out these vegan and vegetarian recipes featured on FlavorDiva.com

(v) Vegan, (veg) Vegetarian and can be easily converted to vegan

Apple Pecan Salad with Cider Vinaigrette (veg)
Braised Cabbage (veg)
Butternut Squash Soup (v)
Chole Curry & Pulao (v)
Coconut Curry Pumpkin Soup (v)
Fresh String Beans & Cherry Tomatoes (v)
Golden Couscous (v)
Papa al Pomodoro (Italian Bread & Tomato Soup) (v)
Quinoa Millet Hot Cereal (v)
Roasted Curry Spiced Pecans (v)
Sautéed Asparagus (v)
Spring Fresh, Summer Ready Pasta Salad (v)
Summer Fresh Marinara Sauce (v)
South African Mashed Pumpkin (veg)
Toasty Homemade Granola (veg)
Tortilla Soup (veg)
Tuscan White Bean Soup (veg)
Warm Fingerling Potato Salad (veg)

Who’s the best cook in the family out of my large group of cousins on my dad’s side? This was the question supposedly answered by my cousin Allen who claimed he held the crown and title. I don’t know about that, but he did come up with a good combination of herbs and seasonings for a delicious, juicy turkey burger.

If you’re looking for a good recipe to help kick-off the grilling and barbeque season, I definitely recommend Allen’s juicy turkey burgers. As long as you use ground turkey thighs or ground turkey breast no leaner than 97/3, you should have a tasty burger.

I have tasted turkey burgers, plenty unfortunately, that taste like cardboard, and that’s basically because they were either overcooked or didn’t have enough fat in them. Yes, while overall we want to decrease the amount of saturated fat in our diets, turkey burgers need some fat or else you’re going to get that cardboard taste.

In addition to using the right kind of ground turkey, the egg and breadcrumbs also help make the burgers moist.  A seasoning combination of dried herbs of dill, tarragon, parsley and sage along with my addition of onion and garlic powder in place of all-purpose seasoning, all make up Allen’s tasty recipe. I was quite impressed, and I think you will be too. Enjoy!

Allen’s Turkey Burgers
Serves 4

1 pound ground turkey thighs
1/8 teaspoon dried tarragon leaves
1/4 teaspoon dried dill
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon ground sage
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large egg
1/4 cup bread crumbs
Fresh cracked black pepper

In a large bowl, add the ground turkey and spices, and mix to combine. Then, add the egg and bread crumbs and combine further. Heat a non-stick grill pan over medium to medium-high heat. In the meantime, form four patties with your mixture.

Lightly spray the grill pan with cooking spray and place your patties on the grill cooking for about 7 minutes on one side before flipping and cooking for an additional 7 – 8 minutes until done. Serve on whole grain buns or on what Allen recommends – Pepperidge Farm Deli Flats.

I’m sure the parents of the 3rd and 4th graders from two D.C. area public charter schools would be amazed by their children’s enjoyment of asparagus and cherry tomatoes, sautéed spinach, and fresh mint tea. Being that I only started enjoying asparagus last year, I was definitely impressed, but that just goes to show the power of fresh picked vegetables straight from the garden.

Last week and the week before, I had the pleasure of giving a cooking demo to students in the Washington Youth Garden’s Garden Science program. Located in the beautiful National Arboretum, the Washington Youth Garden provides environmental science and food education programs for D.C. youth and their families. These programs include teaching gardening and how food gets from farm to plate, how to start a school garden, how to be good stewards of the environment, and how to prepare fresh nutritious food.

All of the kids were very eager and happy to help me cut up asparagus, tomatoes, lemons and herbs. Some of them helped harvest the vegetables and herbs from the garden, while others helped to gather the scraps for the compost pile. In addition to the beauty of the garden and superior taste of freshly picked vegetables, the gratification that comes from eating something you helped to prepare was another big factor that likely contributed to the students liking the lightly cooked vegetables and even asking for seconds!

With the increased attention school gardens, childhood nutrition, home gardening, and local foods are receiving nationally from First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign and White House Garden, opportunities are increasingly becoming available for everyone to join in the efforts to improve our own and our children’s eating habits, food choices and awareness of how and what we eat.  Among national and local efforts to improve school lunches, establish community and school gardens, and advocate for better food policies, there are plenty of opportunities for you to get involved where ever you live.

Here are some resources to help you find such an opportunity, as well as a recipe for fresh mint tea, which the Washington Youth Garden kids definitely enjoyed!

American Community Garden Association
Let’s Move Campaign
Slow Food USA (Chapters nation-wide)
Time for Lunch Program (Slow Food USA)
DC Field to Fork Network
Google.com (Just do a search for your city and “community garden” or “school gardens”)

Fresh Mint Tea

4 quarts water
5 -6 single serving bags of black tea
1 bunch of fresh mint (about 1 to 1-1/2 cups packed), leaves removed (discard stems)
1 cup evaporated cane juice sugar, plus more to taste

Bring the water to a boil in a large pot. Once boiling, turn off heat and add tea bags and loose mint leaves. Let steep for about 5 – 10 minutes. Strain the tea into a heat-proof pitcher and stir in sugar. Serve warm or allow tea to cool and serve over ice.

Tempting co-workers with afternoon sweets, especially when few people can say no to chocolaty goodness, is not the most helpful thing to do for a group of health conscious folks, however, many still appreciate an afternoon pick-me up so I didn’t feel too bad about bringing in brownies twice last week. Thanks to my co-workers’ willingness to be my brownie taste-testers, I have a delicious chocolate rum brownie recipe to share that’s received multiple approvals.

Have you made brownies from scratch lately? They’re incredibly easy to make, so if you haven’t, put the box aside and give it a try. You don’t even need an electric mixer.

There are a large variety of brownie recipes out there, but your basic chocolate brownie recipe usually consists of ½ cup flour, ½ cup butter or oil, 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, and cocoa powder or melted chocolate along with a few other ingredients for an 8” x 8” pan. Of course some recipes include nuts and some don’t.

For the real brownie lover, texture is often a question. Some recipes yield fudge-like gooey brownies, and some offer up spongy cake-like brownies. Personally, I love a brownie that’s in between these two textures. When making brownies, generally the rule of thumb is the more dry ingredients used the fudgier the brownie, and the more liquid ingredients used the more cake-like the brownie.

After two tries, I’m going with the recipe below for a chocolate brownie that’s a little fudgy, but not too much and that throws in a hint of rum just for a surprise flavor. Enjoy!

Chocolate Rum Brownies

1/2 cup butter (1 stick) (organic)
2 oz. bitter-sweet chocolate
2 large eggs (organic or cage-free)
1 cup cane sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 tablespoons dark rum
2 pinches salt
2/3 cup all-purpose flour (organic and unbleached)
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder (instant coffee powder)
1/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8″ x 8″ square baking pan with butter or cooking spray and set aside. In a small sauce pan over low heat, melt the butter and chocolate until smooth stirring often, then transfer to a separate bowl and set aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs for about 1 minute. Add sugar and a pinch of salt and beat until smooth (about 2 – 3 minutes). Add vanilla extract and rum, and mix well.

In separate smaller bowl, whisk together flour, espresso powder, baking powder and a pinch of salt. In the large bowl with the egg and sugar mixture, stir in the melted chocolate mixture. Then, stir in the flour mixture a little at a time with a spatula until just combined. Do not over mix.

Using a spatula, transfer the brownie batter evenly into the greased baking pan. No need to spread batter around with the spatula. Just lightly drop the pan a few times on the countertop to get the batter to settle. Bake on the middle rack for 25 minutes. Allow brownies to cool in the pan for 30 minutes before serving.

After seven months of weekend-long intensives, weekly classes, teaching practicums, readings, personal practice and study; the nine ladies of the Shakti Mind Body Studio 2009 – 2010 yoga teacher training class have been initiated into the transformative practice of yoga as teachers and life-long students.

As a member of this class, I’m grateful for the experience of the program and I thoroughly enjoyed it. My interest in food and nutrition goes hand in hand with my study of healing movement through yoga and dance, as they all have the power to heal and foster well-being – body, mind and spirit.

During our graduation celebration this past Sunday, we all brought a vegetarian dish just as we had for our lunches throughout the teacher training program. The spread was delicious and beautiful from roasted vegetables to an Asian noodle stir-fry to chocolate dipped strawberries.

Wanting to make sure I contributed an especially delicious entrée for our special occasion, I looked to the flavor of Indian cuisine with its myriad of spices that always leave my mouth bursting with a party of flavors in every bite. I’m a big fan of Indian food, and thanks to my study of Indian cookbooks and several Indian cooking classes, the chole curry with pulao that I brought to the party turned out very well.

The chole (a.k.a. chickpeas or garbanzo beans) curry included the seasoning of mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry powder, garam masala, cinnamon, bay leaves, parsley and fire-roasted crushed tomatoes. With a slow simmer these spices meld together to create a very tasty curry to go over the pulao. I highly recommend finding yourself a good Indian market to get your spices. Their spices tend to be less expensive than what you find in a regular grocery store.

Pulao, basmati rice pilaf, is a very fragrant dish in Indian cuisine. It can be made a variety of ways, but I used spices recommended by Chef Sudhir Seth of Passage to India, which I learned from him during a cooking class.

In addition to using the spices of cinnamon, black peppercorns, cardamom, cumin seeds and cloves, the key to this lovely pulao is washing or rinsing the basmati rice 3 to 4 times to remove excess starch and then letting the rice soak briefly while you cook the spices and boil your water. With the rice left to simmer on low for only 15 minutes and then removed from the heat and left to sit for 5 minutes, you’ll have fluffy rice every time. Enjoy and Namaste!

Chole Curry (Chickpea/Garbanzo Bean Curry)
Serves many (10 – 15)

4 tablespoons oil (extra-virgin olive oil, or ghee, or other)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 - 3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
3 cans (15-oz.) of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
1 can (15-oz.) crushed tomatoes (fire-roasted if you can find it)
2-1/2 cups vegetable broth (plus more if needed during cooking)
2 teaspoons kosher salt (plus more to taste)
1-1/2 tablespoons curry powder
1 tablespoon garam masala
3 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick (optional)
1/4 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary (optional)
2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes (or 1-1/2 tbs fresh chopped parsley)
Fresh cracked black pepper
1 Squeeze of fresh lemon (about 1 teaspoon)

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add mustard seeds and cover pot with lid to retain any popping seeds. Cook seeds for about 1 minute (until you hear them begin to sizzle and pop a little). Uncover pot and add cumin seeds, onion and garlic; and sauté about 5 – 8 minutes (until onions begin to become translucent). Note: As always, do not burn the garlic – otherwise start over.

Add the rinsed and drained beans to the pot along with the crushed tomatoes (juice included). Stir and next add the broth, curry powder, garam masala powder, salt, bay leaves, cinnamon stick and rosemary.

Stir contents well, cover pot and increase heat to medium high. Once the contents of the pot reach a hard simmer or low boil, reduce the heat to medium low, cover pot and simmer stirring occasionally. Add additional broth if curry becomes too thick. It should neither be too soupy nor pasty.

After simmering for 20 minutes or so, add parsley, black pepper and lemon juice. Stir and taste for flavor. Add additional salt or curry powder if desired. Simmer on low for an additional 10 - 15 minutes. Serve over rice or with flat bread and enjoy!

Note: You can use dried garbanzo beans as well, just soak them over night and simmer longer (more broth or water needed) until the beans are tender. Canned beans are acceptable; just use a quality natural foods brand that doesn’t include preservatives. I used Whole Food’s 365 Organic Garbanzo Beans.

Pulao (Fragrant Basmati Rice)
Serves 5 (Recipe can be easily doubled)
Adapted from a mutter pulao recipe by Sudhir Seth of Passage to India

1 cup basmati rice
2 tablespoons oil (canola, ghee, or other)
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
5 cloves
6 green cardamom pods
10 whole black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
1-1/5 cups water (plus more for rinsing and soaking)
1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, rinse and drain (wash) rice 3 – 4 times with lukewarm water, then in the same bowl, cover rice in lukewarm water and set aside. Heat oil over medium heat in a medium sauce pan and add cumin seeds. After about 15 – 30 seconds, seeds will begin to sizzle. Immediately add other spices and sauté for about 1 minute.

Add 1-1/2 cups water to pot and raise heat to bring water to a boil. Drain soaking rice and add rice to the boiling water. Allow water to come back to a boil, stir once, then cover pot. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove covered pot from heat and set aside for 5 minutes. Fluff rice and serve.  

Note: The pre-washing the rice removes excess starch and results in separated, fluffy rice.

 

Well, I didn’t get a spot on the 3rd season of the Food Network’s Grill It With Bobby Flay, but no worries because I still have my recipe for chermoula marinated grilled fish with a savory, yet fruity couscous to share with you. I made some tweaks to my Moroccan chermoula sauce and used it this time to marinade halibut instead of mahi mahi, and I like the dish even better now.

Since I made the first version of this fragrant and earthy sauce used widely in Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian cooking, I attended a cooking demo with Moroccan native, Chef Samir Labriny of Moroccan Cuisine Academy. At the demo I learned even more about Moroccan cooking, including more about chermoula sauce.

Some chermoula sauces are more herb-based (parsley or cilantro) as mine is and some are more tomato-based. In my original chermoula recipe I didn’t include tomatoes, but I did in this most recent version. The tomatoes add a nice balance to the flavor, cutting down on some of the grassiness of the parsley and cilantro.

At the cooking demo I also learned about making couscous using any regular couscous rather than a quick-cooking variety that I normally use. I basically think using either is fine, but the boxed quick-cooking variety sometimes tastes a little like the cardboard box it comes in and didn’t seem to cook as fluffy as the brand I used this time. So, from now on, I think I’ll use Chef Labriny’s approach for couscous, which is to place the semolina pasta-like granules in a large bowl and cover the couscous with boiling water or broth, cover the bowl and allow it to sit for about 30 – 40 minutes before tossing in any remaining ingredients. It works perfectly.

As for the type of fish I used in this dish, both the mahi mahi (what I used in my Food Network audition video) and Alaskan halibut are good grilling choices. They’re meaty, but not overly so, and they have a mild flavor that allows the chermoula sauce to be featured. Also, this time I grilled the fish using my new Staub cast iron grill pan (love it!) rather than an outdoor grill. The fish seemed to take a little longer on my grill pan, but it still worked fine and almost just as well as the outdoor gas grill.

Overall, I was very pleased with this meal, and it really didn’t take that long to make, so it’s a good week night choice. You can also make chermoula sauce in advance and keep it refrigerated for several days to have it ready to use. The sauce works well for seasoning chicken or vegetables in addition to fish, so try it out and enjoy!

Moroccan Chermoula Sauce Over Grilled Fish
Serves 4 – 6

Six 4 – 6 oz. pieces of U.S. mahi-mahi fillets (about 3” in width, 4” in length), skin on (Halibut can be used as well)
1 cup of chermoula sauce
Vegetable oil for drizzling/brushing
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

While heating a gas grill on medium heat, rinse and pat dry the fish fillets, then place them on a baking sheet for holding. Brush the skin side of each fillet with a little oil. This will help prevent the fish from sticking to the grill. Then with skin side down on the baking sheet, sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper.

Using a spatula, place 1 – 2 tablespoons of the chermoula sauce on each fillet and thickly spread the sauce over the fish. Lightly cover the sheet of fish with plastic wrap and place sheet in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, but up to two hours.

After marinating the fish, remove it from the refrigerator and place on the heated grill with skin side down. (Be sure to oil the grill grate with a paper towel saturated with vegetable oil to prevent sticking.) Note: If using a stove top grill pan, heat the pan on medium to medium-high before adding fish.

Grill fish directly over medium heat. If your grill tends to be cooler on one side than the other, use the cooler side. After about 15 minutes, carefully flip the fillets and grill on the other side for an additional five minutes. Fish should have light browning and flake easily with a fork when done. Remove fillets from grill and serve over couscous.

Chermoula Sauce
Makes about 1 cup of marinade

2 cups of roughly chopped cilantro
1-1/2 cups of roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 green onion (scallion) sliced, using both green and white parts
4 large garlic cloves, peeled
2 medium sized, ripe tomatoes – peeled and seeded
2 teaspoons grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Juice of a half lemon
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

In the small bowl (4-cup) of a food processor, add all of the ingredients except for the olive oil. Process the ingredients as you slowly add in the olive oil through the oil drain (top) of the food processor until the marinade comes together to form a thick, pasty sauce. Add in the olive oil a little at a time. You may not need all of it. Sauce should be thick, not liquid-like. Taste the sauce for flavor and add additional salt or pepper if needed. Transfer sauce to a small bowl, cover and set aside until ready to use.

Couscous with Golden Raisins and Dried Apricots
Serves 4

1 cup couscous
2 cups water or chicken broth
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 plump garlic clove, minced
1/3 cup diced dried apricots
1/4 cup golden raisins or dried currants
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt

Place couscous in a large glass or stainless steel bowl. Add the water or broth to a medium sauce pan along with the minced garlic and dried fruit and bring to a boil. Add the boiling water or broth with the garlic, raisins and apricots to the bowl of couscous. Use just enough of the liquid to just cover the couscous. This may be a little less than 2 cups.

Cover the bowl immediately with plastic wrap and set aside. After 30 – 40 minutes, uncover couscous and add parsley, olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Stir and fluff couscous gently to mix in ingredients, and serve with chermoula marinated fish.

Hopefully, where ever you are the weather has been as beautiful and uplifting as the gorgeous spring weather we’ve been experiencing here in the D.C. area. The breakthrough of sunny skies, gentle winds and comfortable warmth has been a refreshing detour from the harsh winter we experienced this year. Now with all the snow melted and days warm enough to leave the jacket at home and breakout the sandals, it’s time to ease up on soups and stews, and move on to lighter and refreshing dishes.

The first touch of spring and lighter fare in my kitchen comes from this nutritious whole wheat pasta salad. Working well as a light side dish for lunch or an afternoon snack, a tasty pasta salad is also a good thing to have in your collection of dishes for your first cook out or BBQ of the season.

Made with whole grain pasta, my spring fresh and summer ready pasta salad includes a variety of flavorful, fresh ingredients like diced tomatoes, green onions, tangy black olives, and a homemade vinaigrette of extra-virgin olive oil, white whine vinegar and Dijon mustard. Easy to make in all of about 30 minutes, you can eat it warm, but it gets that cool and refreshing taste of a salad once you refrigerate it or allow it to come to room temperature. Enjoy!

Spring Fresh, Summer Ready Pasta Salad
Serves 8

3 cups whole wheat corkscrew (rotelle) pasta
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 small ripe tomatoes seeded, peeled and diced
2 scallions (green onions) thinly sliced (green parts only)
1/4 cup sliced black olives
1/4 cup diced red onions
1 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)
Salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Dressing
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup quality white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons honey
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
Pinch of salt

Fill a large pot with water, add 1/2 tablespoon salt, and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook uncovered until pasta is tender. Drain pasta and set aside in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, add white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey and dried thyme. Then slowly drizzle in the extra-virgin olive oil while quickly whisking all dressing ingredients together. Season dressing with a pinch of salt and taste to adjust flavor as needed.

Add olives, green onions, red onions and tomatoes to your bowl of pasta and add in dressing (you may not need to use all of it). Stir all together and mix well. Season pasta salad with salt, pepper and lemon zest to taste. Set aside or refrigerate to cool completely before serving.

I recently found out about an opportunity to be on Grill It with Bobby Flay on the Food Network. The network is currently looking for guests to appear on the show for its 3rd season and asking for recipes and 3-minute video clips of contenders doing their thing on the grill.

While getting on TV or having a cooking show had never been a particular aim or objective of mine since I began my journey into food blogging, when this opportunity arose, I thought, why not? Making a TV appearance with Bobby Flay would be a great experience and way to share my recipes with a broader audience as well as learn from a great chef and one of the best food TV personalities around.

So I created my recipes all centered on a Moroccan theme because I love various cuisines from around the world (Moroccan being one of them) and this North African country is known for a fragrant herb marinade (chermoula sauce) that goes deliciously with fish.  Grilled mahi-mahi with grilled shrimp and vegetable kabobs along with a fruity couscous and an appetizer of grilled roasted red pepper pita wedges is a tasty and interesting menu that I think will be great for TV and your grills this coming spring and summer.

Thanks to the generous help of my tech and video savvy uncle, I was able to put together a brief clip of me demonstrating the main dish of Moroccan-Inspired Grilled Mahi-Mahi with Chermoula Sauce.  Take a look at the video and let me know what you think! We’ll see what happens, but either way, you’ll get the recipes soon – either on the Food Network or FlavorDiva.com.

Familiar foods, recipes and approaches to cooking are a real comfort to most of us. They remind us of home, childhood, and good times with loved-ones. They’re guaranteed to satisfy our taste buds and “hit the spot.” However, I’ve realized through my passion for adventure and exploration, that flavors and cuisines from other countries can add a new enjoyment to our meals and even provide a window into understanding other people of the world and their cultures.

The recent disaster in Haiti has me thinking about their foodways and dishes, which you don’t usually hear much about. Despite this, I’ve discovered that this tiny Island country has a diverse, yet simple, flavorful cuisine that reflects the country’s Caribbean heritage and historic ties to Africa, France and Spain.

If you look at the names of dishes from cookbooks like A Taste of Haiti by Mirta Yurnet-Thomas and Fine Haitian Cuisine by Mona Cassion Ménager, you’ll see chili pepper spiced dishes, quiches, plantains, sweet potatoes, breadfruit, salt cod, and other seafood listed. Fowl, pork and beef, and a variety of rice and beans dishes are also major contributors to Haitian cuisine.

I found a simple Haitian red beans and rice recipe online that I made in thinking about the people of Haiti, their cuisine, and those in the country who currently don’t have the food and resources to fully nourish themselves or enjoy their familiar homeland’s dishes.

Although I already made a donation for Haiti’s recovery a while back, I plan to give more. As we all know, the need for aid continues. This Sunday, February 21st, food bloggers in Atlanta, Chicago, New York and L.A. are uniting to sponsor Stir It! 28, an evening of good food and cocktails where foodies contribute their best dishes to raise funds for Haiti. All of the proceeds will be donated to Yele Haiti and Share Our Strength.

While, I can’t be in attendance at what I’m sure will be deliciously entertaining events, I encourage anyone who’s in New York, Atlanta, Chiciago or L.A. to purchase a ticket and join in the efforts. If you too can’t attend, consider giving or giving again to organizations working for Haiti’s recovery (see below). And when you’re back home in your own kitchen, try out a Haitian recipe to remember the people and connect with their culture in a different way.

Haitian Recipe Resources

A Taste of Haiti (Book)
CaribbeanChoice.com – Haitian Recipes
Fine Haitian Cuisine (Book)
IslandFlave.com – Haitian Recipes

Organizations Acception Donations for Haitian Earthquake Recovery

American Red Cross
Salvation Army
Share Our Strength
Yele Haiti
Many others