Resolutions: Wheat Berry/Roasted Veg Salad

I am not the type of person to keep New Year’s resolutions. Notice I did not say that I’m not the type to make resolutions. I tend to set such gigantic and unreachable goals that it’s just as well that I tend to forget what they even were by about late February. Such a selective memory saves me a lot of regret and embarrassment.


It seems that most folks resolve each year to either live more healthfully (lose weight, lower their cholesterol, stop smoking, go to the gym every day) or save or make more money. I think you can do both of these things together by making certain food and cooking choices. Most of us can probably cook for ourselves and our families more often, saving some cash by lowering the restaurant bill and buying less expensive whole foods (bulk beans and grains are particularly inexpensive). We can also save money by taking advantage of seasonal bounty and respecting our leftovers. You worked hard to purchase and prepare those foods, so don’t throw the leftovers away!

This all, of course, takes time, which is something most of us don’t exactly possess in abundance. (Better time management is probably one of those popular but pesky resolutions as well.) A little planning can help, such as cooking up some whole grains a few days ahead and setting aside some leftover seasonal vegetables. You can then toss them together with an easy vinaigrette that you know by heart and for which you always have the ingredients. Now you have a lovely salad. If you use cooked wheat berries, leftover Roasted Vegetables and Maple-Walnut Vinaigrette, you have the salad I made this week.

If you are not familiar with wheat berries, they are not berries at all, but unprocessed grains of wheat. When cooked, they are quite chewy and nutty and don’t tend to get mushy, at least in my experience, like rice or barley can. They can take up to two hours to cook, but I tried soaking them overnight, as I would dried beans, and was able to cook them in a large pot with plenty of water in about 45 minutes. You can probably find them where other whole grains are sold, such as a bulk foods or health food store, or in one of those fancy organic departments that all a supermarkets now seem to have.

Like any resolutions, simultaneously saving money and improving your diet may best be taken slowly. You might not like wheat berries or Maple Walnut Vinaigrette, so try another grain or another vinaigrette. The point is to make your life as reasonable as possible, and perhaps good-tasting, too. Try not to stress about it. You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew. That can be (literally) both unhealthy and expensive.





Wheat Berry Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Maple Walnut Vinaigrette

3 cups cooked wheat berries
2 cups leftover Roasted Vegetables, cut into ¼- ½ inch pieces
½ cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1 recipe Maple Walnut Vinaigrette

1. In a large bowl toss together the wheat berries, Roasted Vegetables and walnuts. Pour the Maple Walnut Vinaigrette over the mixture and toss to coat.

Makes 6-8 servings and lasts a few days in the refrigerator, as long as the Roasted Vegetables are no more than a day or two old themselves.

A Christmas Story and Chinese Food

I’m a big fan of the idea of a dinner with a movie theme. Somehow, I rarely get something like that together, but now that it’s Christmas vacation, the time and the opportunity presented themselves. This is a laid-back dinner for a laid-back Christmas movie, one of my favorites. I wanted a fairly quick and easy meal, and I wanted to watch A Christmas Story. Even though the Bumpus’ dogs hadn’t stolen my turkey, and I wouldn’t be having a Peking duck smiling at me while Chinese waiters sang “Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra,” it still seemed appropriate to serve a spicy chicken stir fry while watching Ralphie pine for a Red Ryder B B gun (with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time).

The secret to stir fry is much like the secret to a serene holiday season: prepare as much ahead of time as possible. Do I succeed in this? With stir fries, usually. I cook the rice, marinate the chicken, prepare the sauce, and chop everything else before even thinking about heating the wok. My holiday preparations are a completely different story. (Exhibit A: fewer than usual posts this month.) Oh well, as I always say, next year will be different.

Of course when I made this, I let the hot peppers, ginger and garlic go a little too long all alone, and the resulting acrid fumes made us cough all through dinner. I also made this soupier than I would have liked, so perhaps it should have less chicken broth or more corn starch in the sauce. It tasted good like this, and I served it in bowls to contain the sauciness better. It was hot and spicy and holding the bowl close on a cold night while watching A Christmas Story was nice and cozy and just right somehow.

So light your leg lamp and fire up your wok (or a large frying pan) and cook up a spicy chicken stir fry for a pre-Christmas celebration. Just don’t stick your tongue to any flag poles for old time’s sake. And if you do, please don’t bother the fire department. A simple glass of warm water poured over the offending area will solve the problem. Am I speaking from experience? I’ll never admit it. Oh, yeah, and don’t shoot your eye out.

Spicy Chicken Stir Fry Recipe
This is based on Sichuan or Kung Pao chicken dishes in Chinese restaurants. If you cannot find whole water chestnuts, sliced ones will be fine. Serve with hot cooked rice and a pot of tea.

½ cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons honey
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup Shaoxing wine (or sake)
2 tablespoons Chinese black vinegar (or rice vinegar)
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
1 bunch (about 8 medium) green onions
1 large (or 2 small) red bell pepper
1 (8-ounce) can whole water chestnuts
3 tablespoons canola oil or peanut oil, divided
1 ½ tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1 ½ tablespoon minced garlic (about 5-7 cloves)
4-6 dried chile peppers
½ cup cashews

1. Combine the chicken broth, honey, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, Chinese black vinegar, cornstarch and sesame oil in a small bowl. Whisk well to combine.

2. Place the chicken in a medium bowl. Remove ¼ cup of the broth mixture and pour it onto the chicken. Stir well to coat the chicken. Set aside to marinate for 20-30 minutes. (If the chicken will be standing longer than that, refrigerate it until ready to use.)

3. Cut off the roots of the green onions and thinly slice the white and light green part. Set aside. Cut the dark green tops into 1-inch lengths. Set aside separately. Cut the bell pepper into approximately 1-inch squares. Halve the water chestnuts (quarter the larger ones).

4. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat until it appears to shimmer. Add the ginger, garlic and dried chiles. Stir fry (ie, cook while stirring constantly) 30 seconds. These ingredients can produce acrid fumes when heated like this, so avoid inhaling those fumes if possible.

5. Remove the chicken from the marinade with a slotted spoon, and place in the wok. Discard the marinade. Stir fry the chicken 4-5 minutes or until cooked through. Remove the chicken from the pan and place in a clean bowl.

6. Add the bell peppers and white and light green parts of the onions. Stir fry 2 minutes. Add the water chestnuts and stir fry another minute.

7. Return the chicken to the pan and add the sauce. Bring to a boil and cook until the sauce has thickened slightly. Turn off the heat and stir in the green onion tops and cashews. Serve with hot cooked rice.

Makes 4 servings.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

The calendar may not admit that it’s winter yet, but it’s cold outside! First there was a blizzard with all its blowing and drifting (and a snow day even at the local universities), then came the cold. This morning it was -8 (Fahrenheit !) So, bitterly cold weather, lots of root vegetables from our CSA stashed in various places about the apartment…I’m thinking soup!

There seem to be a thousand ways with a thousand vegetables that all work for soup this time of year. (Heck, a bowl of hot water sounds pretty good if you’re cold enough.) I kept this one simple and featured carrots and parsnips, two great roots that taste great together. They even look a little alike, at least in shape and size, and their tastes are similar enough to suggest that they are related to each other, but different enough to make a soup of sufficiently complex flavor. Potatoes, celery and onions go along for the ride, and make it all work well without any backseat driving.

It doesn’t really matter how you cut the vegetables for this soup, because it is pureed in the end. Just remember that the smaller you cut the vegetables, the faster they cook. I like to use an immersion blender to puree the soup. I find it to be less messy than dirtying extra bowls, blenders or food processors. Of course, careless use of an immersion blender can result in a truly amazing splatter-fest, but I’ve been able to avoid such things.



I used fresh thyme and rosemary in this soup, because I still have a lot of fresh herbs that I rescued from the frost on the patio. I tied them in a little bouquet garni, and removed them from the soup before pureeing. You could use dried thyme (about 1 teaspoon) and dried rosemary (just a large pinch, crumbled) if that is more convenient, or add whatever herbs you like. There’s also a generous amount of black pepper in this recipe, which makes it nice and spicy, which I find even more comforting on a cold day. You can reduce the amount if you’d like it less peppery. The amount of salt in the recipe is approximate and based on the broth you use, or your personal taste (and health concerns). I use homemade, unsalted vegetable broth, so I have to add quite a bit of salt when I make soup.

I also give a range of cooking times in the recipe below. You want the vegetables to be quite soft so they’re easy to puree, and the amount of time it takes will depend on how large the pieces are. Also, I tend to forget to thaw broth ahead of time, and have to put it in the soup pot as a large, misshapen ice cube, and thawing time needs to be added to my cooking time. It all works out in the end.


Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a Friday night appointment with an electric blanket, a hot beverage and a good book. Stay warm, my friends!


Cream of Carrot and Parsnip Soup Recipe
This makes a huge pot of soup, but the recipe could probably be cut in half. I have also included instructions below for freezing the soup.

2 tablespoons (30ml) olive oil
½ pound (250g) chopped onion
½ pound (250g) chopped celery
1 pound (500g) chopped peeled carrot
1 pound (500g) chopped peeled parsnip
1 pound (500g) chopped peeled potato
½ cup (125ml) dry white wine, optional
1 ½ teaspoons (8ml)coarse (Kosher) salt
1 teaspoon (5ml) black pepper
6 cups (1.5 l) vegetable broth
about 10 sprigs fresh thyme
1 4-inch sprig rosemary
1 large or 2 small bay leaves
½ cup (125ml) half and half
chopped fresh parsley

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and ½ teaspoon salt and cook, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes.

2. Add the celery, carrot, parsnip and potato. (I tend to chop and add vegetables for soups like this as I go. If you are not a fast chopper, you may want to have all of the vegetables prepared before beginning the recipe.) Cook, stirring occasionally, 5-8 minutes, or until the vegetables are beginning to soften.

3. Pour in the wine. Reach down to the bottom of the pan with a spoon and scrape up any browned bits. Add the remaining teaspoon salt, pepper, and vegetable broth. Tie up the thyme and rosemary sprigs with a piece of kitchen twine. Add the thyme and rosemary bundle and the bay leaf and bring to a boil.

4. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes or until the vegetables are very soft.

5. Uncover, turn off the heat and remove the herb bundle and bay leaves. When the soup has stopped bubbling, puree it with an immersion blender until very smooth. Alternatively, puree the soup in batches with a blender or food processor. Whichever method you use, use caution, because the soup is very hot.

6. Taste the soup and add salt if needed. Stir in the half and half. Return to the heat and warm up if necessary. Serve garnished with chopped fresh parsley.

Makes at least 8 servings.

To freeze the soup, omit the half and half from the portion that you are freezing. Allow the soup to cool until it is easy to handle. Ladle it into a zip-top freezer bag or other freezer-safe container and freeze. When planning to serve, thaw the soup in the refrigerator (probably 12 to 24 hours). Heat through and add the half and half. Serve garnished with fresh parsley.

Gingerbread Granola

It’s been said that we cannot live on bread alone. I suppose that must apply to gingerbread as well, although that is really a cake, and in some cases a cookie. Since cakes and cookies probably also do not qualify as something on which we could live alone (although it might be fun to die trying), I might have to find something healthier to load with gingerbread flavors.

I nominate granola for this task. While Harry is happy to eat cake and cookies (not to mention Pumpkin Pie) for breakfast, that doesn’t really work for me. But I can get a more wholesome gingerbread fix if I take my basic Granola recipe and adjust the sweeteners and spices to represent the flavors of old fashioned gingerbread.

This means replacing the honey and maple syrup with molasses and more brown sugar and adding plenty of ground ginger along with nutmeg and cloves with the cinnamon. I thought that among dried fruits raisins and dates went best with the ginger-molasses flavors (and I was able to get my hands on some really good, plump dates). Finally, I gilded the lily (or gingered it) with a little bit of finely minced crystallized ginger. This provides a pretty strong flavor and you can leave it out if it’s just too much, or if you cannot find it (it should be available in the Asian section of supermarkets, but I also found it, quite economically priced, among the dried fruits at the local bulk foods store).

When I first made this granola, I burned it a little, so I tried to adjust the recipe for an appropriate baking time. You might want to keep a close eye on it in the final 8 minutes or so of baking, and be sure to stir the granola occasionally while it’s in the oven. If nothing else, it needs to be redistributed so that there are no thin spots or corners that can easily burn.

This may not exactly satisfy your holiday season sweet tooth, but I think you can probably feel less guilty about eating it for breakfast with some milk or lightly-sweetened yogurt than you might about eating the heads off of all the gingerbread men in the house. You also probably cannot live on this stuff alone, but the oats, wheat germ, nuts and dried fruit certainly have a higher WFQ* than just about any batch of gingerbread.

Gingerbread Granola Recipe

4 cups rolled oats
1 cup chopped pecans
¼ cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ cup butter
¼ cup molasses
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup raisins
½ cup chopped dates
¼ cup finely minced crystallized ginger (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 F
1. In a very large bowl, mix the oats, pecans, wheat germ, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the molasses and brown sugar. Cook, stirring until the brown sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Carefully pour over the oat mixture and together to coat well.

3. Spread mixture evenly in a large baking sheet coated with cooking spray or lined with a silicone baking mat. Bake at 325 F for about 25-30 minutes, stirring every 8-10 minutes. Check the granola frequently after about 25 minutes to make sure it is not burning.

4. Carefully transfer granola to a large bowl. Add the raisins, dates and crystallized ginger and stir to combine. Cool completely.

Makes about 7 cups.


*WFQ: Whole Food Quotient