Pan-Fried Gnocchi with Green Goddess Sauce and Quick-Pickled Carrots

Last week my little brother was in town from the USA and we had an incredibly fun and ridiculously debaucherous time with him and a pair of his hilarious friends. Not being used to the many party-friendly novelties of Berlin (you can drink on the street! bars never close! everything great is walking distance!) they made it their mission to stay up all night every night and take it all in. I managed to avoid the craziness for a few nights but by the weekend I was in too, and I think I'll be recovering for some time. (Also from the heartbreak of suddenly having to go cold-turkey off of American-boy humor, which I apparently have really been missing.)

So for dinner after they left I decided to make something with a lot of raw garlic and green stuff to stave off oncoming infections surely flooding my weakened immune system. The perfect thing? Green Goddess dressing from Appetite for Reduction, a garlicky, tahini-laced herb dressing with tons of punch. Instead of serving it on a salad like normal however, I opted for some comfort food (to soothe my empty-nest syndrome). What better than some toothsome gnocchi? I boiled a couple of potatoes, set on the window sill to cool off, then put them through a potato ricer and kneaded the resulting mash with flour until it was easy to form little dumplings. Then I pan fried it in some olive oil and margarine. For a final kick, I peeled a carrot and quick pickled it in a bit of vinegar and sugar in the fridge.

Two parts raw, one part cooked, and extremely vibrant and delicious. I can think of many variations on this theme...

Another bright and delicious weeknight meal that incorporates a raw dressing? Another rendition of the sweet potato, tahini and onion dish from Jerusalem, served alongside some kale with garlic, diced red peppers, and a dollop of pomegranate molasses.  

Man I should eat like this every night! But then, what would I tell the veggie dogs in my fridge...?


Song of the Day: Paolo Conto- Sparring Partner

Me vs. Cold Season

A dear old friend of mine (let's just call her "Flower Bug" since that's her preferred nickname, hehe) recently emailed me to ask if I had any foodie cures for a sore throat. (Try Cayenne pepper, Bug!) I imagine she reached out to me since I am one of those obnoxious people who constantly talks about how she never gets sick and rattles off a list of veggie cures to common ailments. Seriously, mention that you have a cold, and I'll probably be all "Oh, I never get sick! You should go vegan! And eat some garlic!" A few lesser known foodie cures:

Anise seeds + water= no more hiccups
Cardomom + ginger= no more tummy ache
Pistachios = cheap cure for jaundice and dermatitus
Mangoes = Giardia killer
Onions= defense against asthma attacks

(A lot of this stuff I learned from The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods by Michael Murray, which my awesome brother gave for my birthday.)

*Cough*. So anyways, this morning when I awoke I was amazed to find that I wasn't feeling well: sore throat, runny nose, headache, the whole shebang. I was shocked not only because I so rarely get sick, but also because it was the first really cold day, and how stereotypical is it to get the sniffles the first day the temperature drops? So conformist. Well, not wanting to go against my own commonly given advice I decided I would take my sick self to the grocery store and see what I could whip up to kill the cold before it broke into my finals week. My main hypothesis is that I can get better before getting worse merely by overloading on garlic, ginger and vitamin C.

So first I made the "Ginger Congee" from this month's Vegetarian Times. Congee is apparently a rice porridge eaten for breakfast. The Veg Times version is a ginger and garlic broth that you soak dried shitake mushrooms and rice in to make a nice soup. This was super comforting and warming. It was a little sweet (especially with the addition of mirin) but it mostly tasted like a milder miso soup. I'm going to eat this for breakfast tomorrow too.

To get even more garlic then the few measly cloves in the soup, (yes, I'm hardcore) I made a roasted garlic pizza. I roasted a whole head of garlic, mashed it with a little olive oil into a paste, and spread it over a vegan ready-made pizza crust. There's some tomato and orange pepper on there- which, might I add, is also good for throats (along with some more red pepper flakes for good measure.) I sprinkled on a little nooch after it got out of the oven and sat down to my super cold-killer meal.

Tomorrow I'm going to use the leftover broth to attempt a lentil soup with kale, ginger, and butternut squash. I'm sure by then I'll be completely better though... *cough*

Do you guys have any home remedies? After all, everbody knows chicken soup is for losers. ;P

Song of the day: "Narcissist Waltz"- Die Romantik

Garlic is magic!

One of the top things that I am really pedantic about (aside from, you know, feminism, immigrant rights, veganism, ect) is GARLIC. Whenever anyone around me starts sniffling, you can count on me to be obnoxiously yelling "Go eat some raw GARLIC! Put it on a veggie burger! Sprinkle it on pasta! I swear to G-d, it works!"

And as annoying as it is to yell at sick people all time (my bad) I'm actually right here. The Times Health Blog ("Well") has a quickie today on how scientists have been finding all sorts of health benefits hidden inside the gorgeous little cloves.

In the latest study, performed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, researchers extracted juice from supermarket garlic and added small amounts to human red blood cells. The cells immediately began emitting hydrogen sulfide, the scientists found.

The power to boost hydrogen sulfide production may help explain why a garlic-rich diet appears to protect against various cancers, including breast, prostate and colon cancer, say the study authors. Higher hydrogen sulfide might also protect the heart, according to other experts. Although garlic has not consistently been shown to lower cholesterol levels, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine earlier this year found that injecting hydrogen sulfide into mice almost completely prevented the damage to heart muscle caused by a heart attack.

Ok, so I guess none of that proves that it cures the common cold... but I bet you that if you up your garlic intake you will find that you get sick less often, as a nice side effect to avoiding various cancers. Also, wear a scarf to bed when your throat starts hurting. My roomate swears by it.

Unlocking the Benefits of Garlic