Poultry for Passover

Poultry is a tasty and easy low-fat choice year-round and especially during Pesach. Here are two recipes, one for white meat turkey breast and the second for dark meat chicken thighs (פרגיות in Hebrew)

Here in Israel, turkey breast and chicken thighs are sold skinless and boneless - perfect convenience foods!   If you can't get your butcher to skin and bone the poultry, you can use what's available in your area. 

Turkey Breast with Fresh Herbs (Meat)

Lemon juice, olive oil and fresh herbs transform ordinary turkey breast into a very special main course. This would make a great Shabbat Pesach entrée. For a larger crowd, use a whole turkey breast and double the amount of the marinade ingredients. Cold leftovers are also delicious. Just be sure to start the recipe well in advance, as the turkey needs to marinate for 24 hours.

Half a turkey breast, about 2 pounds (1 kilo)

¼ cup fresh parsley leaves

¼ cup fresh mint leaves

¼ cup fresh coriander leaves

1 clove garlic, peeled

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

½ cup dry white wine

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Place the turkey breast in a glass or other non-metal container.

Process the rest of the ingredients in a food processor until the mixture is fairly smooth.

Pour the marinade over the turkey. Make sure that it covers all of the turkey.  Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 425 F (220 C). Remove the turkey from the marinade and place it on a roasting tray. (Save the marinade for the sauce; see below.) Cook for 20 minutes.  Reduce the oven temperature to 400 F (200 C) and cook until the turkey reaches an internal temperature of 160 F (71C). Let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Pour the marinade into a small saucepan and cook for 15 minutes or until it’s reduced by about half.  Serve with the sliced turkey. 

Serves 8

Lemon-Baked Chicken Thighs with Fennel and Olives (Meat)

Here’s another poultry recipe to start in the evening and cook the next day. Or, you can marinate the chicken early in the day and bake it in the evening.  This recipe is great for Shabbat, as the chicken stays moist and juicy while waiting on the plata or in the oven.

2 pounds (1 kilo) skinless boneless chicken thighs

1 tablespoon lemon zest (1 large lemon)

¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from the same lemon)

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs, cored and thinly sliced

1 large onion, sliced

¾ cup dry white wine

½ cup chicken or vegetable broth

¼ - ½ cup black olives, pitted

Arrange the chicken thighs in a flat glass or ceramic baking dish. 

Mix together the lemon zest, lemon juice, ¼ cup of olive oil, garlic, oregano and sugar. Pour it over the chicken. Turn the chicken pieces over to coat both sides in the marinade. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

When you’re ready to finish cooking the chicken, heat the 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet. Add the fennel and onion slices and sauté until soft and golden.  Add the wine and broth and cook for a few minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).

Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and pour the fennel and onion mixture over it. Scatter the olives on top.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 40 minutes, until the chicken is completely cooked.

Serves 8-10

Our Favorite Charoset

Chock full of fresh fruits, dried fruits and nuts, this healthy Turkish-style charoset gets raves from our Seder guests. I prepare a double recipe and use it to spread on matzah during the whole week of Pesach – good for breakfast and snacks too!

1 seedless orange, peeled and cut into eighths

1 apple, peeled, cored and cut into eighths

1 cup dates, pitted and halved

1 cup raisins

½ cup walnut pieces or halves

½ cup almonds

2 tablespoons orange juice

Put all of the ingredients into the bowl of a food processor. Process until the mixture looks like a rather coarse paste. Add more juice if necessary.

Refrigerate to blend the flavors.

Yields: 3 cups

Have it All - Delicious, Healthy and Kosher L' Pesach!

Do you hate feeling heavy and stuffed after the Seder? Are you tired of putting on pounds after a week of overeating? Have you had enough of spending hours in the kitchen during Pesach?

If there’s one holiday that’s especially associated with food – and lots of it, it’s Pesach.

You can enjoy a happy, healthy and delicious holiday with these tips and recipes:

Serve vegetables at every meal. Use vegetables in salads, soups and side dishes. Add vegetables to matzah brei and kugel. Spread mashed avocado on matzah.

Fruit makes a delicious dessert. Serve fresh seasonal fruit, dried or fresh fruit compote and fruit salad instead of cookies and cake.

Eat fish! Fish makes an elegant and easy first or main course. Our favorite Seder menu is fresh poached salmon, roasted potatoes and a green vegetable.

Chicken and turkey are also healthy choices. Cook your chicken soup early, refrigerate it overnight and skim the hardened fat before serving.

Substitute a portion of whole eggs with egg whites in your Passover cooking and baking. Two egg whites are equal in volume to one whole egg.

Use oil rather than margarine for cooking and baking. Extra-virgin olive oil is healthiest. Walnut and peanut oil, if available, are also good choices. Don’t use cottonseed oil, which is high in saturated fat and can contain pesticide residues. Avoid margarine altogether in baking by using recipes based on nuts, like macaroons and nut-based cakes. 

Keep meals easy and light. There’s no need to prepare huge amounts and endless varieties of food – for any holiday! 

What Should I Eat? Nuts

Got the munchies? Need an easy, satisfying snack?

Eat a handful of nuts. They’ll take the edge off of your hunger. They’re a great source of protein. And full of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and fiber. Yes, they’re high in fat, but it’s mostly good, unsaturated fat. The kind that reduces LDL (lousy) cholesterol and keeps HDL (healthy) cholesterol levels high. In fact, people who regularly eat nuts are less likely to have heart attacks or die from heart disease than people who rarely eat them.

But nuts are high in calories.

So don’t add nuts to an already high-calorie diet. You’re likely to gain weight. And excess weight could cancel the health benefits of nuts.

Here’s the trick: eat nuts instead of cookies, candy, chips and other junk food. And don’t overdo it. An ounce or two (28-56 grams) of nuts a day is a reasonable amount. That’s ¼ to ½ a cup or a large handful.

Shopping for Pesach

The Pesach display just went up at our neighborhood grocery store. First to hit the shelves were coffee, gefilte fish, soup mix, snacks, candy and packaged cakes. To my surprise, there was a large display of dried fruits and nuts – kosher L’Pesach and on sale.

In the US, Pesach food often comes to market before Purim. And every year the choice gets bigger and bigger. Last year, over 21,000 Passover food items were available in the US.  More than 500 of them were brand new products.

It’s a growing market, with a growing price tag.

With this year’s economic downturn, many of us will be thinking twice before tossing Pesach items into our grocery cart.

There are other reasons to think twice. Many of the highly processed Passover “specialty foods” are high in fat, sugar and salt. They’re high in simple carbohydrates. And they’re loaded with empty calories.

Here are some ways to save money and eat healthier at the same time:

Start by writing a menu. Focus on fish, poultry and seasonal vegetables.

When it comes to packaged foods, stick to the basics: Matzah, matzah meal, nuts, dried fruit, olive oil, spices, coffee, tea, wine, tuna, tomato sauce, dairy products. I keep a list of the Pesach food I buy each year, and adjust it as needed for the following year.

Start shopping early for the basics so you won’t feel rushed or pressured when you get to the store.

Don’t be tempted by fancy packaging and advertising. If you’re not sure about a product, read the ingredient list and nutrition label. It’s always fun to try something new, but do your best to focus on “real” food and skip the junk.

Make a list! After you’ve decided on a menu, write down what you’ll need. Take your list with you to the store and stick to it.

Next on Pesach:  Have it All – Delicious, Healthy and Kosher L’Pesach!

More Foods that are Good for You. Another in the Series: "What Should I Eat?"

Eggs

When everyone’s hungry and you haven’t planned anything to eat, whip up an omelet. Eggs take particularly well to leftover vegetables. Add eggs to sautéed onion, red pepper and zucchini for a Spanish-style frittata. Leftover roasted potatoes? Cooked broccoli or asparagus? A tomato that won’t last until tomorrow? Add them to beaten eggs with a little salt and pepper, and you’ll have a tasty meal in no time.

Just be sure to cook eggs thoroughly to avoid salmonella poisoning. Unless you’re diabetic or have high cholesterol levels, you can enjoy eggs regularly. Their high-quality protein and easily absorbable vitamins and minerals make them nearly perfect nutritionally.

First Anniversary!

It's hard for me to believe, but it's been one year since Food for the Soul was published. 

It's been a busy and eventful year. The book lead to speaking engagements, writing assignments, newspaper interviews, and best of all, the creation of this blog. 

I thought the hard part would be over once the book was in print, but it turned out to be just the beginning. 

But I love the work. I love your questions and your feedback. They keep me thinking, learning and on my toes. 

Right now, I'm thinking about my next book. Stay tuned.

Breaking News!

A remarkable new study conducted by the staff of the Bernard Cohen Hospital in B’nei B’rak and released on Erev Purim proves once and for all that people who consume the entire contents of all the Mishloach Manot that their children receive live longer, healthier and happier lives than those who restrict their intake to fruit, nuts and popcorn.

This changes everything!!!

Chag Purim Sameach! Happy Purim!

Mishloach Manot

A Jewish women’s organization is soliciting donations in the US for Mishloach Manot (Purim gifts) for students living in the south. One of our neighborhood schools is sponsored by this organization, so it’s likely that students here will be among the recipients.

Do they think that Israeli kids are lacking in Purim goodies? Do they know how much junk food the children here eat?  Are candy and salty snacks supposed to alleviate anxieties brought on by the recent war?

Why not raise money to set up a school lunch program?

Israeli school children celebrated Purim on Sunday. Our granddaughter came to our house from gan (pre-school) with a bag of Bamba and chocolate wafer cookies, which she ate on the walk home. This was in addition to a gift of Mishloach Manot from the gan – a box of candy bars. I didn’t even ask what they served at their Purim party.

The Mishloach Manot trend in our community is moving towards donation cards. With local organizations under financial stress, this makes a lot of sense.

But we are still obligated to send “real” Mishloach Manot – a minimum of two different ready-to-eat food items to at least one person.

I like to give a homemade baked good and fresh fruit. 

(Star Kist tuna is running an ad campaign in Israel featuring tuna Mishloach Manot. I was briefly inspired. Maybe next year.)

Hamentashen are always a favorite. Include some whole-wheat flour in the dough and make a simple filling by poaching prunes, apricots or other dried fruit in a little water. Throw in a cinnamon stick for flavor and you won’t need to add sugar.

Seasonal oranges, apples and tangerines are a perfect complement.

This year I’m thinking ecologically too. I’m not putting my Purim goodies into baskets or plastic trays. I’ll be recycling my collection of paper bags – those cute little decorative bags with handles that you get with even the tiniest purchase.

Have a happy, healthy and fun Purim! 

Yes You Can! Home-Made Pudding

Pudding mix is so easy – just add milk and cook.

With basic ingredients in your pantry, you can make it almost as fast as with a mix. After all, pudding is just milk thickened with cornstarch, sweetened with sugar and flavored with vanilla or cocoa. What’s hard about that?

Cook it in the microwave to make it even faster.


Quick and Easy Microwave Chocolate Pudding (Dairy)


This recipe should convince you that homemade pudding can be quick, easy and delicious. It’s less sweet (and less expensive) than store-bought varieties. You can make it parve with unsweetened soy, almond or rice milk if you’d like.


3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/3 cup sugar

⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

½ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

2 cups nonfat or low-fat milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Put the cornstarch, sugar, cocoa and cinnamon in a 4-cup glass measuring cup. Mix the ingredients together well with a whisk. Slowly mix in the milk, using the whisk to keep the mixture smooth and free of any lumps of cocoa. Stir in the vanilla.


Cook in the microwave on high for 3 minutes. Remove and whisk the mixture until smooth. Return to the microwave and cook on high for 2 to 5 minutes, until it comes to a boil and thickens.

Pour the pudding into individual serving dishes or one serving bowl and refrigerate until cold.


Serves 4 to 5

Happy Purim!

Here are two recipes for your Purim repertoire.

First, an easy vegetarian main course that Queen Esther might have enjoyed. And then, cupcakes that go together in a snap. Great for dessert or to include in mishloach manot.

Enjoy and have a Chag Sameach - A Happy Purim!

VEGETABLE STEW WITH GARBANZO BEANS (PARVE)

1 cup water
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into ½ “thick diagonal slices
3 to 4 zucchini cut in half lengthwise and sliced ½ “ thick
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can (14 to 15 oz / 400 gm) diced tomatoes
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
1 can (15 oz / 400 gm) garbanzo beans
1/3 cup raisins
½ teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste (optional)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Cook the carrots and water for in a covered saucepan for 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook for about 3 minutes, until just tender. Remove the vegetables from the broth and set aside. (Use the broth for a soup or sauce.) When the saucepan is cool, dry it with a paper towel.

In the same saucepan, heat the olive oil and sauté the garlic for a few seconds. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, cumin, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for a few minutes. Stir in the garbanzos and raisins and simmer another few minutes. Add hot sauce, zucchini and carrots and simmer a few more minutes. Taste for salt and pepper.

Serves 4-6

GINGERBREAD CUPCAKES (PARVE)

These cupcakes are quick and easy to prepare. Instead of using full-size muffin tins, I like to bake them in mini-muffin tins for mishloach manot.

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
½ cup sugar
½ cup molasses or silan (date honey)
½ cup canola oil
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder, dissolved in
½ cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 C).

Line 16 muffin cups (regular size) with paper liners.

Sift or whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and spices and set aside.

Beat together eggs just to mix. Add the sugar, molasses and oil and mix. Mix in dry ingredients and coffee. The mixture will be thin.

Pour the batter into the muffin cups. (You can do this easily with a glass measuring cup.)

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until cakes spring back when gently touched. Remove cupcakes to a rack to cool.

Makes 16 regular size cupcakes and 32 or more mini size

Yes You Can! Soup Stock

Is dry soup powder one of your pantry staples? Do you know what’s in it?

Here’s the ingredient list of chicken-flavor parve soup powder: salt, sugar, starch, vegetable fat, anti-caking agents, dehydrated vegetables, spices and flavorings. A cup of liquid broth made with dry soup mix will add about 1000 mg of sodium to whatever you’re cooking.

Do you know that home-made stock can be made in a snap with ingredients you probably have in your refrigerator? With a fraction of the salt and loads more flavor.

Here’s how:

Roughly chop up an onion, a carrot and a stalk or two of celery (including leaves). Sauté the vegetables in a little canola oil for about 10 minutes, until soft. It’s o.k. if they start to brown. Add a few cups of water, bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Add other vegetables and herbs if you have them. Good additions to soup stock include zucchini, winter squash, parsley root or leaves, bay leaf, tomato, leeks, potatoes and garlic. Just wash, trim and add it to the pot. Add water to more than cover the extra vegetables.

For extra-speedy, really in-a-hurry stock, don’t sauté the vegetables. Just simmer a chopped onion, carrot and celery in water for 10-15 minutes.

Yes You Can! Salad Dressing

Mention salad dressing and most of us think of a bottle.

Grocery store shelves are stocked with countless varieties of kosher salad dressing. Other than having too much salt and sugar, they’re not really so terrible. But why spend money on something that’s so simple to make yourself?

You probably already have the ingredients for healthy and delicious salad dressing.
All it takes is oil, vinegar or lemon juice, salt and pepper. The only equipment you’ll need is a whisk or a bottle with a tight-fitting lid.

The proportions are one part vinegar to three parts of oil. But there’s lots of room for adjustments. And endless variations.

Get started with this vinaigrette recipe:

2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar or fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
6 tablespoons (1/3 cup) extra-virgin olive oil

Combine the vinegar with the salt and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil. Or, shake everything together in a jar.

Makes about ½ cup.

Now get creative. Try balsamic or rice wine vinegar. Add a spoonful of Dijon mustard or finely minced onion or garlic. Grate fresh lemon zest into a dressing using lemon juice. Experiment with herbs and spices.