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.

Yes You Can! Piecrust

Ready-made piecrusts usually contain saturated fat, sugar and excess salt.

Why not make your own from healthy canola or olive oil and a bit of flavorful whole-wheat flour?
It’s really not that hard. It’s also tasty, healthier and less expensive.

Here are two recipes to get you started.

For the first, you don’t even need a rolling pin. Just mix the ingredients together right in the pan. What could be easier? Use it for dessert or savory pies and quiches.

Plan ahead for the second recipe, as the dough needs to “rest” for 30 minutes before you roll it out. It’s great for rustic-style vegetable pies.

NO-ROLL PIE CRUST (Dairy or Parve)

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
¾ teaspoon sugar (for a sweet pie)
¾ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup + 3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons milk (dairy or soy)

9 “(23cm) pie plate

Whisk together both flours, sugar (if using) and salt right in the pie pan. Mix the oil and milk together. Add them to the flour mixture in the pie pan and mix with a fork or your fingers. Add more milk, if necessary, until the dough holds together.

Press the dough evenly over the bottom and sides of the pan and even-out the edges.

To pre-bake: Preheat the oven to 425 F (220 C). Place a piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper over the dough and fill it with dry beans. Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 350 F (180 C), carefully remove the beans and foil, and bake for another 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.

Or fill the crust with your favorite filling and bake as directed in your recipe.

Makes one 9” (23cm) crust


SEPHARDIC PASTRY DOUGH (Parve)

¼ cup water
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup whole wheat flour
¼ - ½ cup all-purpose white flour

Combine the water, oil and salt in a bowl. Stir in the whole-wheat flour. Gradually add enough of the white flour to make a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl. Knead gently in the bowl and shape into a disc. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 F (190 C)

Generously grease a 9” (23 cm) pie pan with cooking oil spray. Roll the dough into a round to fit the pan. Fill with your favorite filling and bake until the filling is set and the crust is brown.

Makes one 9” (23 cm) crust

Yes You Can! Croutons and Breadcrumbs

Aren’t croutons just toasted bread cubes? And breadcrumbs are day-old bread ground up in the food processor or crushed with a rolling pin.

That’s what I always thought. At least until I read the label on a package of croutons at the grocery store. They were loaded with salt and fat. And rather expensive for a product that’s basically bread!

You can make your own very easily.

Croutons in the Oven

Cut slices of bread into cubes. Put them on a baking sheet and bake them in a low oven until they’re dry and lightly browned. Stir them occasionally while they’re baking. When they’re done, they should feel like toast.

Croutons on the Stove

Heat some olive oil in a large skillet. Add cubes of bread and cook, stirring often, until they’re crisp. Add garlic or spices if you’d like.

Oven-baked croutons will keep for awhile in an airtight container. Croutons cooked in olive oil are perishable and should be used fairly quickly.

Breadcrumbs

For soft fresh breadcrumbs simply tear up leftover bread into pieces and process in your food processor.

Make dry breadcrumbs from toasted or stale, dry bread. Break it up directly into the bowl of the food processor and process until it becomes crumbs.

Home made breadcrumbs can be stored in a zip-lock bag in the freezer for a few months.

Yes You Can!

You’ve heard it over and over again. To lose weight, you’ve got to eat less and exercise more.

But there’s another piece of the equation – cooking!

In many households, home cooking has all but disappeared. It started when women left the kitchen to work outside the home. Food manufacturers filled the void with processed “convenience” foods. These foods became regular components of the meals we fed our families. Then our lives got even busier and we started to rely on “fast food” and take-out. Many of us never learned how to cook.

It’s time to get back into the kitchen.

The financial crunch is certainly a good incentive to switch from store-bought to home-made. And we know that home-cooked food is almost always healthier than high-fat, high-sugar and overly salted processed foods.

It’s really not hard to cook from scratch. And it doesn’t take all day. What it takes is some advance planning and a little know-how.

How can you make the switch from store-bought to home-made? Let’s start with some easy basics.

In my next few blogs, I’ll give you directions and recipes for making salad dressing, soup stock, pie crust, croutons, and pudding. Small things that taste better, cost less, and are healthier when you make them yourself.

Cook from scratch?

President Obama won over the crowds by saying “Yes We Can!”

And I’m saying to you, when it comes to cooking, “Yes You Can!”