Elana’s Pantry

Celebrating Independence

Yesterday my son and I made the delicious strawberry sorbet pictured above.

As July 4th approaches, our ice cream maker has been getting a real workout. It’s hotter now so we’re always looking for good frozen treats to cool us off. When I asked my older son what he thought about the sorbet, he simply said, “yum.” That sums it up fairly well. I find it light, sweet and refreshing.

On another note, I enjoy using holidays throughout the year to pause, reflect and freshen my perspective, finding that even secular celebrations come in handy for this. With July 4th just around the corner, I’ve created a little list of independence offerings that provide new ways of doing the same old everyday things. I hope you like it and find it useful.

And for a wholesome, delicious dessert to go along with your independence celebration, try this sorbet. You will wow your guests with a burst of fresh fruit flavor!

Happy Fourth of July! I hope all of you have a fantastic holiday weekend and enjoy good food with good friends! Feel free to leave a comment below to let me know what you will be eating doing this weekend.

Community Supported Spinach Cake

Our weekly CSA share kicked in yesterday and we received a ton of fresh organic produce! For those of you who aren’t familiar, “CSA” stands for community supported agriculture. This relatively new socio-economic concept changes the way food is produced, distributed and sold, creating small scale closed markets for farmers in which the consumer participates in the risk and rewards of the farm.

One of the great benefits of the CSA (in addition to receiving produce the day it is picked) is that it gives farmers more time to do what they do best –grow food. By cutting out the middle man, the farmers also receive more money for their crops and save time by not having to market produce to stores.

Earlier this year my family purchased a “share” in this season’s crop from Abbondanza. This means we receive vegetables straight from the farm each week during the harvest months.

Frankly, our farm share is looking great this year –although we actually only purchased a “half share,” we received more greens yesterday than I could figure out what to do with. This sent me rummaging through my recipes last night in search of culinary solutions to my vegetable overload.

The biggest “problem” was spinach. What to do with the several pounds of spinach crowding out the other greens in the veggie drawer of my fridge? Spinach cake of course!

Spinach Cake
1 ½ pounds spinach, thoroughly washed, leave stems on if they are not tough
1 cup pine nuts
3 tablespoons grapeseed oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 eggs, whisked
½ cup currants
1 teaspoon celtic sea salt

1. Wilt spinach in a large covered saucepan, over low heat (do not add water) 5 minutes, until tender
2. Drain and cool, then gently squeeze moisture out of spinach
3. Place spinach in food processor and pulse until coarsely blended, then set aside
4. In a small skillet, warm 3 tablespoons oil, add pine nuts and saute until golden brown
5. Add garlic to pan of pine nuts and saute together an additional minute
6. In a large bowl, combine pine nuts mixture, blended spinach, eggs, currants and salt
7. Spread mixture into a greased 10×7 inched pyrex baking dish
8. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes
9. Serve

Makes 12 spinach cakes

This spinach recipe is based on Claudia Roden’s Tortino di Spinaci. As I have mentioned before, she is my all time favorite cookbook author. I often hear her speaking about the history of Jewish food on NPR. She is basically a food historian, as well as a culinary genius.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we do and that it solves your spinach harvest woes!

Spinach Salad with Pistachios

Well, Mother’s Day was gorgeous. A warm and balmy 70 degrees, we went for a lovely hike and after that, I prepared a big dinner for my husband, the boys, our friends Chris and Larry and their little ones. We had Chicken Marbella (delicious) and a big spinach salad. Chris helped me to surreptitiously photograph the salad above as the hub does not like it when I take food pics whilst we have guests visiting for a meal. Actually, my entire family gets somewhat annoyed whenever I photograph food if it is anywhere near the dinner hour. They just want to eat. And who can blame them!

On another note, I’ve had something in the hopper for a while now. I have been passionate about the environment for quite some time. Having children drew my focus in from the macrocosm (environmental consulting for Fortune 500 companies) to the microcosm –family and home.

Each spring I am saddened when people in my neighborhood begin to spray their lawns with chemical poisons. There is such a well documented risk of pesticide toxicity; I worry about all of those dogs and children playing on lawns and rolling around in pesticides.

Therefore, I have launched a new site, called My Dandelion is a Flower. If you like your pesticides, then this website is probably not the place for you, so just skip it. If you are a little bit earthy or organic, then definitely check it out –you’ll have a good time. Unlike Elana’s Pantry which is a blog, updated frequently with my writing and recipes, My Dandelion is a Flower is a static site, full of fun facts and helpful hints. Enjoy!

Passover Torte

Ok, so in yesterday’s “reach out and touch someone” post I failed. In fact, I fell flat. On my face. Do you know how many comments were posted? One. Not much community in one post.

To cheer myself up, I can always read some Dooce. That woman makes me laugh out loud. Or I can listen to the Captain and Tenille’s Love Will Keep Us Together. Either way, I do not despair, Passover is near and for me, this occasion provides endless activity and distraction.

For the Jewish Betty Crocker in all of us, here’s a delectable cake recipe for Passover.

Vanilla Torte with Raspberry Filling and Chocolate Frosting
2 cups blanched almond flour
¼ cup coconut flour
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
10 eggs
1¾ cups agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup raspberry jam
1 batch vegan chocolate frosting

1. In a medium bowl, combine flours and salt
2. In a larger bowl, whisk together eggs, agave and vanilla
3. Whisk flours into egg mixture until well blended
4. Line bottoms only of 3 nine inch cake pans with parchment paper
5. Divide cake batter evenly between pans
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes
7. Remove from oven when cakes are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean
8. Cool cakes for at least one hour
9. Run knife around cake to loosen from pan, remove from pan and peel off parchment
10. Place bottom layer on a cake plate and spread with jam
11. Add next layer of cake and spread with jam
12. Place top layer on cake and frost entire cake with chocolate frosting
13. Serve

Serves 12

This pareve torte is rich and sweet. Though it is a tad sweeter than most of my desserts, that’s because a) this one is for a holiday; b) my husband really liked it that way.

Still the cake has enough protein that it will not leave you with a high-carb hangover after your Pesach Seder. Now, if you eat too much matzah, well, that’s another story.

Making Soup and Community

Over the last month I have received several emails from people despondent over their dietary options, or lack thereof. The touching aspect? Each person thanks me profusely for this website, for providing them with options and offering new ways to enjoy the foods they can eat.

The heartbreaking aspect of these same emails? People express their feelings of loneliness and isolation. They ask if I can recommend a community where people share their dietary concerns. If only I knew of such a place.

Certain sites such as gluten-free girl (written by Shauna Ahern), have created amazing online neighborhoods; I often refer people to her blog. However, Shauna follows a different food plan than many of us over here. While she offers great gluten-free recipes, some people cannot eat the dairy, soy, corn, potatoes, grains and white sugar in her dishes. Looking for a book about making the most of your dietary lot? Hers is a good read.

Where can those of us on a more restricted diet go for community? Let’s form one right here.

Whether you come to this site because you have dietary dilemmas or you just like to eat good food, join in and let us all know about one of the following:

Go ahead, leave a comment; let all of us out here know what’s on your mind.

Squash Aduki Chestnut Soup
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1 leek, washed and chopped
1 cup butternut or acorn squash, peeled and cubed
2 quarts chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup aduki beans, cooked
1 cup chestnuts, cooked
1 head kale, chopped

1. In a large soup pot, warm oil over medium-high heat
2. Sauté leek for 10 minutes until soft
3. Add squash and sauté for 5 minutes
4. Pour stock into pan and bring to a simmer
5. Add aduki beans, chestnuts and kale
6. Simmer for ½ hour to allow flavors to meld
7. Serve

Here in Colorado, it is cold and snowy yet again! Today, I will be making another big pot of this soup to warm my bones.