quinoa and lentils

I love Indian Dal. I don’t have patience to make it. I want to share a recipe I made up last night which is my variation on Dal complete with greens to even out the meal:

1 cup (1/3 cup red, 1/3 cup green and 1/3 cup french) lentils (soaked 12 hours will reduce gas factor)

3/4 cup of Quinoa (not neccesary to soak)

2-3 handfuls mesculun salad greens or dark leafy greens of choice (braising greens best) in bite size pieces

1/3 cup of chicken or vegetable broth

2 cap fulls of yellow curry powder (roughly two tablespoons)

a few shakes of garam masala

1/2 inch slice of butter (omit if  not consuming dairy)

1/4 teaspoon of sesame oil

Boil 2.5 cups of water. when boiling add lentils and cook 15 min on medium. Add quinoa and cook 10 minutes more until quinoa puffs up. In last 2 minutes of quinoa cooking add curry powder, greens and chicken broth. Stir a few times to incorporate flavors. Cover pot and let steam cook greens. After 2 minutes, stir again, add butter and/or sesame oil, remaining spices, salt and pepper to your taste and melt in butter. Simmer on low until all liquid absorbed or moist. Add more broth if starting to dry out.  Serve immediately with lemon and chopped parsley or cilantro.

makes 2-3 servings

luscious organics cafe

I am excited that I just put my first press release together for my new cafe. www.sobelwellness.com/luscious-organics-cafe.html. I want to share a copy with you all and I’d love if anyone could help me get this into time out or other fun publications that are looking for health oriented restaurant and food options. I am hoping to kick off a lunch and dinner deliver service to wall street analysts (those who still have jobs) and other people in the downtown area that are looking for a healthy alternative to take out Chinese, pizza and sushi.

An enticing new healthy oriented organic café, juice bar and lunchtime take out opportunity has just come onto the downtown New York scene and diners throughout the city looking for an intimate environment that is more similar to a posh loft-like living room than a typical restaurant are invited to sample the unique sights, sounds and tastes of Luscious Organics, a vegetarian organic café and juice bar, conveniently located in the Atmananda Yoga Studio, at 324 Lafayette Street, on the border of SoHo and the Central Village one block south of the world famous Bleecker Street. The space is a downtown gem, an urban oasis for all things healthy and holistic offering classes, workshops and now an incredible new café and juice bar where you can have a juice, enjoy a full meal or order a healthy lunch to pick up or be delivered to your office.

From the moment you enter into the inviting surroundings at the newly re-managed restaurant, the holistic experience begins. Floor to ceiling windows, high ceilings, warm inviting lighting and the intimate environment of your living room and beautiful communal table are a beautiful complement to the subdued red-shaded lamps, elegant multi-colored floor to ceiling curtains and dark wood flooring throughout the studio that surround the open kitchen and juice bar just one block from SoHo, New York, NY.

Seated at either the juice bar or a real dining seat at one of Luscious Organics’ dark wood communal tables, accented with highly contemporary, white dishes, flatware and tall vases of fresh lilies, enjoying the scents of fresh herbs and spices wafting from the kitchen, you know you’ve come to the right place to sample the delicious fare of health supportive vegetarian organic cuisine. You don’t even realize after a while that there’s no meat, very little dairy and eggs and that everything coming out of this kitchen is fresh, minimally processed and wholesomely delicious.

The Luscious Organics menu embraces the culinary style of health and the yogic lifestyle. The menu highlights the bold fresh flavors of nearby Chinatown, the union square greenmarkets and other sources of local produce that support community agriculture and local farm eggs characteristic the New York Hudson Valley and surrounding farms in upstate New York and Pennsylvania. Savor such dishes as velvety butternut squash soup with local greenmarket pears, heartwarming lentil soup with fresh market root vegetables, lightly stir fried bok choi with black sesame ginger glaze, braised Brussels sprouts, sesame and honey accented Asian cabbage slaw, tarragon infused spinach quiche accented with local farm fresh goats cheese, coconut brown basmati rice, orange walnut quinoa with ginger and orange rind, lime-chili marinated tofu with fresh vegetables and many other delights. Complete your meal with one of the tempting hand-crafted desserts, many of which are gluten free and naturally sweetened without refined sugars prepared fresh daily in the kitchen. Top off your meal with a delicious cup of chef and owner Meredith Sobel’s proprietary “Creative”tea, a mix of teas, fruit flavors, fresh ginger and chai spices that captures the whimsical creative yet inspirational nature of her cooking and her personality. And as Meredith herself, the knowledgeable owner of Luscious Organics greets you with a warm smile, you are immediately captivated by Luscious Organics’ thoughtful, savvy service and the love that is freshly infused into each and every dish.

The relaxed sophistication of the dining room of this café in New York, NY flows into the adjoining yoga studio where you can stop by and take a class. There are classes in the early mornings, midday and many in the early and late evening to accommodate a variety of schedules. Take a class and stay for dinner or pre-order you meal to go and it will be packed and ready for you to take with you upon finishing your class. Our express yoga, chill and lunch service will be kicking off in the New Year and will include an express yoga class and to go lunch which you can enjoy at your desk after class. There are two showers in the studio to accommodate your midday needs.
Luscious Organics is situated off the living room of the Atmananda Yoga Studio in downtown Manhattan in the area of Soho. Luscious Organics is open Monday to Wednesday from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Juices and Smoothies available some Thursdays. Dinner is served at approximately 7:30pm-9pm. Selected weekend lunch service will also be available twice a month. A website will be available shortly with detailed weekly hours. Interested guests are encouraged to call 646-209-4519 for a recording of weekly hours or email lusciousorganics@gmail.com. Weekday lunch take out or dine in service is available by order only and all orders must be placed by 10:00am. To order lunch or to make a dinner reservation, please call 646-209-4519 or email lusciousorganics@gmail.com. Complimentary delivery service is available in the downtown area and will be expanded throughout Manhattan shortly. Call for more details. Seamless web service will also be available soon.

About the Atmananda Yoga Studio
Discover a beautiful New York oasis of all things organic, health oriented and focused on connecting your mind to your body. The calming, sophisticated space includes dramatic 14-foot ceilings. For more information or to make a lunch or dinner reservation, please call 646-209-4519 for the café directly or 212-625-1511 for the studio or visit http://www.atmananda.com. The studio and café are located at 324 Lafayette Street, between Houston and Bleecker Streets, on the 7th floor. Take the #6 train to Bleecker Street or the B/D/F or Q trains to Broadway/Lafayette and exit at Lafayette and Houston. Walk one half a block north to 324 Lafayette Street. The café’s website will be up and running soon. For immediate cyber-information, please visit www.sobelwellness.com/luscious-organics-cafe.html.

Whole Grain Cookies

On the episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay that I went to see taped yesterday, I stood next to a woman in the studio audience discussing cookies.  I discussed with her that I was a specialist in making not only foods, but also desserts safe for diabetics but not using artificial sweeteners. She mentioned that she used whole grain flours instead of white flours when preparing cookies.

Being nearly gluten free and mostly wheat free myself I’ve experimented with quite a few cookie ideas. I pretty much gave up the idea of eating cookies or resolved to feeling like crap when I decided to have one. I discovered some interesting Kashi brand cookies – they are ok, but I think they still contain wheat. Dr. Cracker makes spelt crackers and I’ve seen spelt cookies which have not bothered me…but the other day I found an interesting cookie in the health food store. It is called “World of Grains”.  They have whole wheat which sort of stinks for the gluten free bunch – but they are also made with quinoa – great for diabetics and anyone else looking to increase whole grains in the diet. I absolutely adore quinoa and I am so glad its made its way into cookies. The World of Grains cookies really need to make a gluten free variety, but until they do, if you are diabetic, the blueberry ones have 8 grams of sugars (evaporated cane juice) in 6-8 cookies that come in a single serving pack. Multigrain only has 6 grams which is pretty good. They have 3 grams of fiber per serving which is good too.

I still prefer to bake my own. I like oatmeal cookies and I like to use almond flour with agave. I can’t say I’ve baked a lot of cookies in recent years – but with grain free chocolate chips, butter and almond flour one might be able to do something interesting. I’ve definitely done a great peach crisp with those ingredients and trust me, no one in my cooking class knew it wasn’t white flour and brown sugar. The pastured raw butter probably didn’t hurt