Shira Turkl-Rubin

Hey ya’ll,

I’ve finally mastered lentil soup. It’s that time of season when all I crave is warm, cozy, delicious soup. YUM

This was my first time and it was SO SIMPLE – anyone can make it – I PROMISE.

1 pound lentils (I bought mine from Whole Foods)

10 cups water

1 large onion

1 tablespoon olive oil

6 carrots

4 fresh basil leaves

4 sprigs of fresh thyme leaves

1 tablespoon sea salt

1 inch kombu (seaweed to add incredible minerals – it doesn’t change the taste)

Start by heating the oil and sautéing the onions in a large soup pot. When they are clear, add the water and your rinsed lentils. Chop carrots in small rounds and add them into the water as well. Then add your basil, thyme, salt and kombu.

Let everything come to a boil with the lid on then lower the heat and let simmer for 30 minutes to one hour. Your soup will be done when the carrots are soft enough. Add any other veggies that you like, i.e. celery, mushrooms, leafy greens – anything will taste good. Enjoy.

Homemade lentil soup

We just returned home from our trip to California and it was a food fiasco out there – in a good way! Our whole trip was 10 days long and we drove down the coast from Napa to Los Angeles. In each place we went, we used YELP to find wonderful restaurants – what an amazing website!!

I was completely surprised to see how many places in California were gluten free friendly and more importantly they actually knew what it meant to be gluten free and how to deal with me. That’s not something that I see frequently here in NYC and I was very pleasantly surprised. I wonder why restaurants here are not as well versed…? Any ideas?

The food was SO fresh it was almost bursting in our mouths. We went to an incredible farmers market in San Francisco on Saturday and I was shocked to see the quality, knowledge, friendliness, and uniqueness of all the vendors and their products.

They had heirloom tomatoes that literally tasted like basil and no they were not mixed with anything – it was simply fresh soil.

I also bought salt infused with lavender and one infused with rosemary – amazing flavors!

There were all different types of food stalls, including a vegan table with all sorts of interesting smoothies, sushi, and incredible flavors.

In a nutshell, Chad and I were both completely impressed with the quality and care that people take with their food out in Cali. We only wish that New York restaurants will catch on really soon because it’s a huge gap in the market. Bring on the local, organic and deliciousness of our east coast produce. I know it’s available, why isn’t it on our restaurants tables? No I don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for fresh food at a place like Blue Hill Farm when Californians have it so easy right down their street.

Why is it necessary that all the “special” a.k.a. FRESH food is offered in the trendy, overly priced restaurants? I would love to understand. Thoughts?

Only in California!!

Incredible Colors

Me tasting "basil" heirloom tomatoes

Ok friends… here’s a tip. I didn’t make this tip up, but I’ve found it very useful and wanted to share.

For the past day I’ve felt myself starting to come down with a bit of a cold. Now I can’t be getting sick because that’s just not in the cards for me! Chad and I are traveling to California this coming Wednesday and I refuse to be sick for it.

Here’s what I’ve done to jump start my immune system – I ate a clove of garlic with honey. Yes I swallowed the whole thing without chewing it, just like I was taking a vitamin.

The remedy calls for 1 tablespoon of manuca honey, but I didn’t have that on hand so I just used raw honey instead and will buy the manuca later.

Take one garlic clove and cut it into bite-sized pieces, then mix it on a spoon with the honey and swallow it down on an empty stomach.

I know many of you will think this is strange and read right over this post, but for those of you who are intrigued, it REALLY works!

I took it about half hour ago and already my throat feels better… There’s really something to this thing.

Garlic is antifungal, antiviral and anti-parasitic and will basically kill anything bad that stands in its way.

Would you rather get sick, or try this remedy to help make you all better?! I know what the answer was for me.

Good luck and don’t let this rainy day get you down.

Hi all!

I finally decided that I couldn’t take the smell of pizza while walking down these New York City streets – so I decided to do something about it! Amy’s pizza wasn’t cutting it anymore so I decided to take action! We had a pizza party and made our own pizza. This really was NOT hard at all – it just takes some really yummy toppings to make it all worth it. My mouth is watering as I type because I wish I could have it again – I just had it yesterday though and that really wouldn’t be healthy to have it two days in a row!

I used the crust recipe from The Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook author Elana Amsterdam from Elanas Pantry.

Crust:

1 ½ cups almond flour

¼ teaspoon sea salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon grapeseed oil

1 large egg

Topping can be of YOUR choice! Here’s what I used:

1 Tablespoon olive oil

½ medium yellow onion, diced

Handful mushrooms, washed and diced

Yummy store bought tomato sauce with a low amount of sugar. I like: Cucina Antica, tomato basil sauce

4 Fresh, colorful heirloom tomatoes because they were in season, otherwise you can use regular red tomatoes.

Handful fresh basil, washed and chopped into strips

Vegan cheese made from tapioca starch called Daiya.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Use a large baking sheet and prepare 2 pieces of parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, salt, and baking soda. In a medium bowl, whisk together the grapeseed oil and egg. Stir the wet ingredients into the almond flour mixture until thoroughly combine.

Place the dough between the 2 sheets of parchment paper and roll into a 10-inch circle, 1/8 inch thick. Remove the top piece of parchment paper and transfer the bottom piece of parchment paper with the rolled out dough onto the baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and add toppings while still warm.

Toppings:

Heat oil in a small skillet and sauté the onions. When the onions are clear add the mushrooms and sauté together. Cut the tomatoes into bite-sized pieces and chop the basil.
When the crust comes out of the oven, pour on the tomato sauce, enough to cover the whole top. Then add the mushroom and onion mixture, tomatoes and basil. The last topping should be the vegan cheese, which will get sprinkled on the top – use enough to satisfy yourself.

This is simply delicious – enjoy it!

P.S. the picture below is only half of the whole pizza – it’s quite filling.

Last week for Rosh Hashanah I made a mixed berry tart from Terry Walters book Clean Food. I promised to give you the recipe so here it is:

Crust:
1 ½ cups teff flour
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
¼ cup grapeseed oil

Filling:
5 cups fresh or frozen mixed berries
1 ½ cups clear apple juice
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon agar powder
2 tablespoons arrowroot
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparing crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place flour, salt, syrup and oil in food processor and pulse to combine. Pour mixture into 9-inch oiled tart pan. Press down to form crust. Pierce several times with fork and bake 15 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven and set aside on wire rack to cool.

Assembling tart:
Fill tart with berries. In medium pot over medium-high heat, combine apple juice, syrup and agar. Whisk continuously until agar dissolves. Slowly sprinkle in arrowroot and continue whisking until mixture thickens and no clumps remain. Add vanilla, remove from heat and set aside to cool for 5 minutes. Spoon evenly over tart and refrigerate 1 hour or until set.

This was really delicious and everyone really enjoyed it!
The pictures are below but in my rush to finish and transfer the tart to upstate New York I forgot to take a picture of the final product!! Sorry.

There have been times recently where I’ve been a bit too stressed out for my own good and I haven’t really known what to do about it. Figuring out my direction with my business has been a huge struggle for me and as we know, stress does not go well with my belly (as well as yours.)

I’ve found that walking by the water, in my case the Hudson River, has been a huge help. For some reason every time I go over there I get this feeling of relief, I’m able to breathe and simply enjoy. I’ve also found that I enjoy riding my bike along the water to get in some exercise too.

How did I not know about this before?

If you find yourself stressed for whatever reason, I say you should take yourself out of the situation and find what makes you able to breathe again.

Is it walking along the Hudson? Maybe you like to walk through the park.

My husband and I collide when it comes to the decision between water and park – he enjoys walking through the park, while I clearly love the water – it’s so much more calming (I think!) We compromise and do a little bit of both depending on the day.

Don’t let the start of a new season get you down. Just because summer is ending doesn’t mean fall has to be stressful – we as humans always seem to struggle with change but lets embrace it together. Talk a walk wherever your special place may be and I hope you enjoy your day.

Check out this timeless Dave Matthews Band song “Lie in our Graves”

Hello world!!

I’ve finally figured out how to set up a newsletter and post it to my blog!! WOOHOO

Check it out – I’ll be sending it out monthly and now it’s super easy to sign up right here. To the right of this post you’ll see a newsletter sign up – click it!

ALSO a new feature that I’ve added is to be notified each time I post something new – pretty cool huh? That’s also to the right of this post.

New and exciting things are happening. I’m working on a class series. The first one will be about superfoods. Maybe you’re wondering what in the world superfoods are… then this class would be perfect for you! You’ll learn the health benefits that they offer, how to add them to your diet and what they are of course.

Please let me know if you’re interested in this class. I may choose to post it as an mp3 so you can listen at home.

Hope you have a great day!

Last night I had the honor of attending a cooking class at the Natural Gourmet Institute. It was a gluten free and vegan baking class – right up my alley!! The space was beautiful and it was SO much fun.

If you take one of their classes that are targeted for certain people with allergies, you are bound to meet people who have similar interests like you. Yes, that was the case here and I met some really nice women who all spoke my same health conscious language – it was fantastic!

It’s not everyday you spend 4+ hours talking about different flour combinations, types of sugar and so on… It was a really great experience.

I recommend you search through their public class catalog and get yourself to a class. It seems as though most people who attend their classes are quite health conscious, ready to learn something new and really excited to actually be there!

Give yourself a gift of taking a class there, you definitely won’t be disappointed. It really is a special place; Annemarie Colbin must be SO happy- her dream is definitely a success.

Natural Gourmet Class!

From L-R: Vanilla blueberry crumb cake, Chocolate chip strawberry scone bites, Cherry pineapple upside down cake, Raspberry peach cobbler, Coconut chocolate chip bars, Orange creme cupcakes with orange scented whipped topping - All GF and Vegan amazingness

For all of you out there who might be skeptical about trying sea veggies, let me tell you that they are SO healthy for you that it’s worth it to suck up the taste and eat up the nutrients. My favorite sea vegetable is Dulse, which is a red seaweed that grows along the northern coasts of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Dulse is becoming widely popular due to its high fiber and protein content. It also contains lots of vitamins and minerals, most importantly vitamin B and iron. This is a great snack for anyone on a vegan diet, or just anyone looking to add some extra nutrients to their diet.

I eat mine raw and right out of the bag! SO yummy. Sometimes I sprinkle mine on top of salad or add it to soup.

Don’t be afraid of the sea veggies, they have a lot to offer nutrient wise, all you have to do is experiment and know what you’re working with.

Another one that is truly magical is kombu. Kombu is high in a wide range of trace minerals and amino acids, including potassium, iodine, calcium, and vitamins A and C, as well as B-complex and glutamic acid – that’s a whole lot of nutrients right there! In my eyes the most effective way to use kombu is to cut off a one inch strip and stick it in any boiling water, whether you’re making a grain, soup or veggies. The great thing about kombu is that it doesn’t alter the taste; it simply adds the nutrients and then gets discarded at the end.

Magical right? Who knew that these sea veggies could be so nourishing?! You can usually find them in the Asian section of your health food store; just ask until you find the right product.

I didn’t know about these veggies until I was shown what they were and how to use them. I don’t blame you if you’ve never even heard of them but I hope you can explore and be open to new experiences. There are lots of other sea veggies to choose from, these are just the ones that I enjoy the most.

I’m headed straight for the dulse right now…

This past weekend I had a small accident with my foot – I accidentally dropped the top of my ottoman (which was HEAVY) on the top of my right foot and WOW was it painful. I thought I was fine until I went to bed, then the real pain kicked in. You can say that I didn’t sleep much that night, in fact I was quite a crybaby and Chad wasn’t the happiest. The most interesting thing happened to me though – I was having a lucid dream at around 6:15 am about my grandmother who recently passed away 2 and a half months ago. I’m always hearing stories about how people had a “visit” from someone who has died and I can never understand what this means, and how it can possibly feel.

Well, here I was, crying on and off all night about my foot and all of a sudden, I’m dreaming about my Omi. In my dream she was sitting in a chair across the room from me, legs crossed, sitting straight up, completely pain free and wow did she look great. My immediate instinct (in my dream) was to go over to her and hug her – so I did and all of a sudden the hug turned into this warm, real feeling hug – then I left the dream and came back to the reality of sleeping in bed. I was turned on my side in bed and you wouldn’t believe it, but I felt a hug from behind me (no it wasn’t Chad, he was on the other side). Listen, I’m completely frightened when it comes to things like this – spirits, ghosts, whatever you want to call this, but I’m telling you this was real. I was really shaken up after this and I immediately woke Chad and made him turn the light on – I didn’t see anything.

After I’ve analyzed this to the best of my ability, I now know that she was only trying to comfort me in my feeling of discomfort and not scare me. I have so much love for her for watching over me, and I’m grateful that I was able to have one more hug by such a special woman.

For those of you who have had a “visit” from a loved one, I’d love to hear your story.