Holiday Pumpkin Carrot Onion Soup for Mom

Dear Mom, I made this soup for you twelve years ago while you were visiting us. Do you remember it? I dedicated it to you because you were my inspiration in creating it. At the time, my intention was to use some of the principles I had been studying in Macrobiotics. And the result was a delicious soup that made it into my box of favorite recipes.

Since then, every time I make the soup, I remember that wonderful visit in November with you. Thanks, Mom! (P.S. I also remember that we shared a couple of apples with the horse down the road that day!)

Now, each time I make the soup it is a little different than the one before. For example, today when I made it I used a whole large apple (instead of apple juice) and part of a Hokkaido pumpkin both from our garden, and a smaller onion, carrots, and garlic from the New Leaf grocery store. 

Sometimes, I like to allow the onion to brown a little before I add the carrots, for a rich, carmelized flavor. And so, here is what I have written on my recipe card:

HOLIDAY PUMPKIN CARROT ONION SOUP  *during Mom's visit 11/3/2000:

1. Saute in large sauce pan, over medium heat:
 
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 large onion, grated or minced
3 carrots, grated
1 to 3 teaspoons unrefined sesame oil

2. Continue to cook and add:

1/2 cup cooked mashed pumpkin
1 teaspoon unrefined sea salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice** (see note below)
dash of cumin
dash of black pepper
3 cups apple juice (or apple sauce) and water

**Note: Ingredients listed in Trader Joe's Non-irradiated, All-Natural "Pumpkin Pie Spice": Cinnamon, Ginger, Lemon Peel, Nutmeg, Cloves, and Cardamom

3. Bring to a boil, then lower heat, and cover. Cook for about 22 minutes longer.

4. Puree in a cuisinart, a blender, or use a hand blender in the pan, and then cook again for a few more minutes. (Add water if needed.)

When I made the soup today, I grated a very large apple from our garden and sauteed it after the onion and the carrots at the beginning. I used a little more pumpkin (about 3/4 cup), and then I used 3 cups of water instead of apple juice. I used only a dash of pumpkin pie spice and a little more of the cumin and pepper. Who knows, maybe next time I'll skip the pumpkin pie spice altogether and use fresh lemon peel from our garden?

Regarding the final step — there's something about pureeing all of the cooked ingredients together that raises the soup up to another, higher level. It makes it more special somehow. And yet, this soup would be equally as delicious, I think, if it were served in its more-chunky state!

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German Chocolate Cake, A New Upgrade

I finally made a new version of my favorite cake of all time — the German Chocolate Cake. Did you know that it is not really a German cake? According to wikipedia, it is a cake that was made with Mr. Sam German's dark sweet chocolate that he developed for the American Baker's Chocolate company. 

I went to the Baker's Chocolate web site and found the recipe for their "Original BAKER'S GERMAN'S Sweet Chocolate Cake." No wonder I loved this cake as a kid — it's LOADED with sugar! There are 2 cups of sugar in the cake, 1 1/2 cups of sugar in the filling/frosting, and there's also sugar, undoubtedly, in the chocolate and in the coconut.

How can I make this cake without the sugar?

I decided to use applesauce made from whole organic apples along with a touch of agave syrup to sweeten the cake and whole, organic dates to sweeten the frosting. I figured the cake part would not be very sweet and taste more like chocolate, and the frosting would be more sweet, with the dates, coconut, and pecans as the stars of the show.

First, I cut the original recipe in half and chose a ten-inch round baking dish to make a single-layer cake. I decided to keep the eggs and the butter, but use whole-grain flour instead of white flour. Then, I made some applesauce.

Applesauce:
I washed and cut up 5 large apples into small dices (leaving the apple peel on). I heated up a large saucepan, added about two teaspoons of sesame oil, and then added the diced apples. They sizzled and crackled as soon as they hit the hot pan. I turned down the flame to very low, covered the pan, and let it cook for about fifteen minutes or so. Thinking I should add some water to it, I was surprised when I lifted the lid and saw the applesauce was done! The apples had become soft and puffy and when I stirred them, they transformed into the perfect sauce. Not too dry, not too watery. And no sign of the apple peels! I don't know if I'll be able to repeat this, the next time I make applesauce for a cake, but for now, I was very lucky!

Okay, here's the recipe that I ended up making for what turned out to be a delicious "German Chocolate Cake." The cake part was light and moist, and faintly sweet, and the frosting was very sweet, rich, and complex. 

German Chocolate Cake, A New Upgrade
325º F preheated oven
30 minutes
greased 10" round baking dish

THE CAKE PART:  
2 oz. chocolate (unsweetened, organic, Dagoba chocolate for baking)
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup butter, softened (Straus Family Creamery organic butter)
2 eggs, whole, at room temperature
1 or 2 tablespoons organic agave syrup (Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Blue Agave)
1/2 cup thick applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour (I used 1/8 cup gluten flour + 7/8 whole wheat flour) 
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt, unrefined
1/4 cup soy milk, unsweetened organic
1/4 cup water

Step 1: Melt the chocolate with the water, mix well, and set aside.
Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter with the eggs, add agave syrup, applesauce, and vanilla, and stir thoroughly.
Step 3: Add the melted chocolate/water mixture and stir again.
Step 4: Mix the flour, soda, and sea salt in a separate dish.
Step 5: Mix the soy milk and water in a liquid measuring cup.
Step 6: Alternate adding portions of the flour mixture with the liquid mixture to the large mixing bowl and stir well.
Step 7: Evenly distribute the batter into a buttered, 10-inch-round baking dish, and bake at 325º F for 30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and place baking dish on a pad or wire rack and allow cake to cool.

THE FROSTING PART:
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup chopped dates (SunRidge Farms Organic Deglet Dates)
3/4 cup (6 ounces) water
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup coconut, unsweetened, finely shredded (Edward & Sons Let's Do Organic)
3/4 cup pecans, chopped

Step 1: Under careful watch, lightly toast the coconut on a baking sheet in the oven for a couple of minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
Step 2: Melt butter in a quart-size saucepan on the stove.
Step 3: Add dates, water, and vanilla, and cook on medium-low heat for 12 minutes, stirring continually.
Step 4: Turn off heat, add coconut and pecans, and mix thoroughly. 
Step 5. Spread frosting over cooled cake and eat! 

Notes: 
• I kept the cake in the baking dish, but could've just as easily removed it and placed the cake on a serving plate before frosting it. 
• We ate a couple of pieces right away and froze the rest in a container for later. Defrosting was easy and the cake tasted just as good, if not better for having "mellowed" a few weeks. 
• I shared a couple pieces of the cake with friends who were unaccustomed to eating "unsweetened" cake. I think it may have been a shock to their taste buds. But for my husband and I who have not eaten sugar in such a long time, we were able to taste all of the subtle flavors of chocolate and applesauce, and the date-frosting more than made up for the lack of sweetness in the cake. My sweet-tooth was appeased and my childhood memories of German Chocolate Cake received an excellent upgrade!

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Chipotle Mexican Grill Serves Brown Rice

During our summer travels this year, we got the chance to try out a Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant in Sacramento. Previously, the restaurant chain had come up in my online search for brown rice in Santa Cruz restaurants, but "brown rice" wasn't showing up in their online menus, and so I was delighted to finally see for myself that yes, indeed, they do serve it!

And their food is good! It's served up cafeteria style, where they ask you for your choices of ingredients and then you watch as they make up the burrito or tacos on the spot. (You can also get the food served on a bowl of lettuce instead of on tortillas or taco shells.) This particular restaurant started to get very crowded just after we sat down with our food, and the line went clear outside the building. Obviously it's a popular place for lunch. 

I ordered soft corn tacos with brown rice and black beans. I ate it all and enjoyed everything with pleasure!

When we got back home, I looked them up again online and this time I found where they actually do mention brown rice — but not in their menus like I expected to see it, instead it's listed in the "Nutrition Calculator." Select one of four choices—Burrito, Burrito Bowl, Tacos, or Salads, and they'll give you a nutritional breakdown of the ingredients. 

I found that for tacos, they offer soft or crispy corn tortillas along with the usual soft flour tortilla, my choice of white rice or brown rice, and black or pinto beans. (At the restaurant, the person serving me confirmed that the black beans are vegetarian, and the pinto beans have bacon in them.)

They also mention brown rice on their "Special Diet Information" page — there in the chart, it says "cilantro-lime rice (white & brown)."

The Santa Cruz Sentinel has an interesting story about Chipotle that explains more about the restaurant(s):  "Chipotle Mexican Grill, Restaurant Review: Fast Food With Santa Cruz Consciousness."

Finally, a fast-food restaurant chain that serves brown rice! And the good news is that it's growing and becoming more available in more new places. Yay!

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Searching For Brown Rice In Restaurants

I'm always looking for new restaurants that serve whole grains, but they're not always that easy to find. I've learned that if I add the phrase "brown rice"  in quotes to my online search, then I have a much better chance of finding what I'm looking for. If a restaurant serves brown rice, then chances are good that I'll be able to find other foods on the menu that I'd like to eat (like veggies and other whole grains). I also like to narrow my search down even more by adding "whole wheat" to the "brown rice." (Note: Some of the restaurant's online menus are unsearchable images, like Uncle Kwok's, so text for "brown rice" won't always show up in a search. These I found using the old-fashioned way, i.e. the phone book!)

34 Santa Cruz Restaurants That Serve Brown Rice and sometimes Whole Wheat too — (some of them have web sites and some of them I’ve written about in this blog):

    1.    Alfresco Santa Cruz, a sidewalk kiosk (#1) on 1520 Pacific Avenue, (831) 429-1765 (Brown Rice + Whole Wheat Tortillas)
    2.    Aloha Island Grille, 1700 Portola Drive, (831) 479-3299 (organic brown rice)
    3.    Asian Rose Cafe, 1547 Pacific Avenue (831) 458-3023 (no web site)
    4.    Aqua Bleu, 1108 Pacific Avenue, (831) 423-6999 (no web site) 10-15-2012 Update: Aqua Bleu is closed after 8 years. See article.
    5.    Bangkok West -- Aptos, CA -- 2505 Cabrillo College Drive, (831) 479-8297
    6.    Bangkok West -- Watsonville, CA -- 1433 Main Street, (831) 761-8509
    7.    Cafe Gratitude,103 Lincoln St, (831) 427-9583, (6 restaurants in CA, 1 in MO)
    8.    Center Street Grill, 1001 Center Street, (831) 423-4745
    9.    Charlie Hong Kong, 1141 Soquel Avenue, (831) 426-5664 (organic brown rice)
    10.    Chipotle Mexican Grill -- Santa Cruz -- 550 River Street, (831)295-6582 (online reviews say they serve a choice of white or brown rice)
    11.    Chipotle Mexican Grill -- Capitola -- 1955 41st Avenue, (831)295-6076
    12.    Dharma’s Natural Organic Vegetarian Food, 4250 Capitola Road, (831) 462-1717 (organic brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat tortillas, corn, and whole wheat buns)
    13.    Golden City Chinese 1230 Mission Street, (831) 423-0688
    14.    Linda’s Seabreeze Cafe, 542 Seabright Avenue, (831) 427-9713 (doesn't mention the brown rice option on their online menu, but they have it as a footnote on the PDF Menu — at the bottom of the Breakfast page; also, oatmeal)
    15.    Little Shanghai, 1010 Cedar Street, (831) 458-2460
    16.    Malabar Cafe, 514 Front Street, (831) 458-3023 (no web site)
    17.    O’Mei Restaurant, 2316 Mission Street, (831) 425-8458 (no web site)
    18.    Peachwoods at the Inn at Pasatiempo, 555 Highway 17, (831) 426-6333
    19.    Pearl of the Ocean Sri Lankin Restaurant, 736 Water Street, (831) 457-2350, fresh local organic food!
    20.    Phoenix Asian Restaurant, 2301 Mission Street, (831) 466-3888 (no web site)
    21.    Planet Fresh Gourmet Burritos, 1003 Cedar Street, (831) 423-9799 (no web site) (brown rice and whole wheat tortillas)
    22.    Pono Hawaiian Grill -- 120 Union Street, (831) 426-PONO
    23.    Real Thai Kitchen, 1632 Seabright Avenue (at Soquel Ave.), (831) 427-2559 (no web site)
    24.    Sabieng Thai Cuisine, 1218 Mission Street, (831) 425-1020
    25.    Saturn Cafe, 145 Laurel Street, (831) 429-8505 (also one in Berkeley, CA)
    26.    Sushi Totoro, 1701 Mission Street, (831) 426-6660 (no web site)
    27.    Thai Noodle House, 2106 Mission Street, (831) 457-0238 (no web site)
    28.    Tai Orchid Restaurant, 2238 Mission Street, (831) 425-2206
    29.    Thai House, 353 Soquel Avenue, (831) 458-3546 (no web site)
    30.    Tortilla Flats, Gourmet Mexican Cuisine, 4616 Soquel Drive in the Soquel Village, (831) 476-1754 (no brown rice, but they do have whole wheat tortillas!)
    31.    Uncle Kwok's Szechwan Restaurant, 7960 Soquel Drive, Aptos (685-2121)
    32.    Viva’s Organic Mexican Restaurant, 1201 Soquel Avenue (at Seabright Ave.), (831) 425-8482  (organic brown rice and whole wheat tortillas)
    33.    Windmill Cafe, 21231 East Cliff Drive, (831) 464-4698 
    34.    Woodstock's Pizza, 710 Front Street, (831) 727-4444 (doesn't mention the whole wheat crust option on the web site, but they have it!—no brown rice though)

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Getting Started With Macrobiotics

Many years ago, my first introduction to Macrobiotics was the book, Zen Macrobiotics, by George Ohsawa. I found the book in my local grocery store (New Leaf Market) and because I had been hearing the word “Macrobiotics” a lot at the time, I decided to buy it. I instantly fell in love with the whole concept as I read the book. George Ohsawa was appealing to my intellect, common sense, and desire for independence.

That book was published in 1960. Since then, macrobiotic teachers have improved an introductory course in Beginning Macrobiotics. On the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation web site, there are eight recommended books to get you started with learning about Macrobiotics as well as information on where you can get hands-on experience, such as at the annual French Meadows Summer Camp that happens in July.

Eight books to get you started with Macrobiotics:

1. Essential Guide to Macrobiotics, by Carl Ferre
2. Macrobiotics: An Invitation to Health and Happiness, by George Ohsawa
3. Basic Macrobiotic Cooking, Procedures of Grain and Vegetable Cookery, by Julia Ferre
4. French Meadows Cookbook, by Julia Ferre
5. Essential Ohsawa, Understanding the Basics of Macrobiotics, From Food to Health, Happiness to Freedom, by George Ohsawa
6. Acid and Alkaline, by Herman Aihara
7. Health and Macrobiotics, #7 Diet, An Accompaniment to Ohsawa’s Zen Macrobiotics, by Francoise Riviere
8. Acid Alkaline Companion, An Accompaniment to Herman Aihara’s Acid and Alkaline, by Carl Ferre.

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Lunch At Little Shanghai's

I love saying that. Lunch at Little Shanghai's. This is my all-time most favorite restaurant in Santa Cruz for lunch! I can always count on their delicious brown rice cooked fresh daily. My husband and I try to get there right at 11:30 a.m. when they open because that's when the food is the very best.

We stand in line in front of the cafeteria counter, watching as they place the steaming hot food into labeled warming pans before us. Sometimes I go first. 

"Brown rice, please. For here. One item." I watch as they serve several generous scoops of brown rice onto the plate and then I point to the "Tofu Broccoli" item. Several more generous scoops of soft tofu and broccoli cooked in ginger garlic black bean sauce goes on top of the rice. 

The plate goes onto a serving tray and is moved down the line to receive pickled cabbage if I want it, my choice of soup, and a fortune cookie. Then it's Michael's turn. He usually gets two items, and occasionally maybe three. He has his favorites too, like me. 

The thing is, all of their food is good. (I wish I knew their recipes!) They have menus that you can download from their web site, such as this pdf of "Tofu and Vegetables (All Vegan)." And their prices are more than reasonable, I think, especially for what you get.

Little Shanghai's also serves dinner, restaurant-style. The overhead lights are dimmed, candles are lit, and food is brought to you that you've ordered from a menu with a greater selection of entrees. 

The menu choices are diverse, different, and interesting. The food is simple, life-giving, and unpretentious. I highly recommend it.

Cheers!

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What Is A Veggie Burger?

I discovered some new brands of veggie burger products this weekend while reading the June 2012 newsletter from our grocery store, the New Leaf Community Market. Inside, I found articles featuring grilling tips, recipes, toppers, and "best veggie burgers."

In their list of nine types of Veggie Patties, I was already familiar with (1) Gardenburger, (2) Boca Burgers, and (3) Wildwood Tofu Burgers, and I found some more that I'd like to try, including (4) Sunshine Burgers and (5) Amy's Veggie Burgers. 

Some sounded a little weird, like (6) Quorn Burgers (what is "mycoprotein"?) and (7) Sol Cuisine frozen burgers (too much soy? at least they're GMO FREE!). (8) Dr. Praeger's California Veggie Burger proudly lists the ingredients for their truly all-vegetable burger (no fillers or egg products). And finally, (9) Hilary's Eat Well veggie burgers use two whole grains, millet and quinoa, that are free from common allergens.

The newsletter also included a recipe for "New Leaf's Own Beet Burgers," which includes red beets, quinoa, toasted seeds, onion, flour, bread crumbs, and garnet yams. 

This all got me to thinking about what exactly is a veggie burger? 

According to Wikipedia, a veggie burger is a hamburger-style or chicken-style patty that doesn't contain meat.

As I look at recipes for vegetarian and vegan burgers and lists of product ingredients for store-bought or restaurant patties, I'm seeing a common theme. Either there's an emphasis on having a burger patty substitute that tries to mimic the flavors and textures of meat or it tries to replace the protein you would otherwise get from meat. 

I'm very happy to see that there are a lot more veggie burger options out in the world today, and now I'm excited to see that — finally — many of the patties are including whole grains. Because from a macrobiotic point of view, whole grains are the yang replacement for meat. This is all good information for my dream diner, Burger Number Seven.

It is also good to know that my chances of finding more vegetarian burger options in restaurants are steadily improving! I have found a lot of places, especially cafes and pubs, that serve Gardenburgers or something similar. (See The Cheyenne Cafe.) The great ones serve their own handmade veggie burgers on whole grain bread. (See Boulder Creek Brewery And Cafe.)

Listed in the Wikipedia's Veggie burger article, other places that serve veggie burgers include:

• Burger King (they serve MorningStar Farms Garden Veggie Burgers) and Hungry Jack's in Australia, certain Subways, and Harvey's (served on a whole wheat bun), as well as many chain restaurants, such as 
• Red Robin (they serve Gardenburgers), 
• Chili's  (according to their vegetarian menu pdf, their veggies burgers are made with black beans, egg, dairy, and/or honey),
• Denny's ("Fit Fare" menu includes Amy's Veggie Burgers),
• Johnny Rockets (the "Streamliner" = 100% soy Boca Burger), and 
• Hard Rock Cafe (the San Francisco menu includes a "Veggie Leggie" patty grilled and topped with a portabella mushroom).

Here's a toast to more yang veggie burgers in the world — cheers!

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