The summer season is in full swing now and you probably are looking for Jewish recipes for cool and refreshing meals and snacks. Fortunately there are thousands of recipes that are designed for summer eating. These recipes are not only generally healthy for you, but they are also very tastey.
One of my favorite summer dishes is cold noodle salad. It is made by cooking ramen noodles and then topping it with a dressing made from peanut butter, vinegar and a little curry. You mix the peanut butter/curry vinegrette in a bowl and then pour it over your noodles. Then you chill the bowl for two to three hours to allow the noodles time to soak up the dressing.
Another tasty and refreshing summer dish is a simple melon salad. To create this dish all you have to do is select your favorite melons, ball them, and place the pieces in a bowl. You can serve this salad plain or with a dollop of fat-free sour cream mixed with mint.
Do you have summer recipes that you would like to share? What about memories about a summer cookout? Post your stories and recipes below and start a dialog.
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June is the first official month of summer. It is a great month to start taking advantage of fresh produce from local growers. You can use this fresh produce to make parve Jewish recipes. If you don’t know what a parve recipe is, it is simply a recipe that is made without animal products.
A simple parve recipe that you can make is a compote. A compote is a fruit stew. You can serve this fruit stew as a stand alone treat, you can use it as a spread or your can use it as a topping for a desert. Fruits that work well in compotes include rhubarb, strawberries, grapes, pineapple, berries, peaches and pears.
Another simple parve dish that you can make is poached fruit. Poaching fuit enhances the natural sweetness of the fruit and makes it more of a dessert than raw fruit. Fruits that can be poached include pears and apples. You can serve these fruits plain, with their own juice or you can create a caramel glaze. A chocolate sauce can also be very tasty when served over poached fruit. You can make this sauce healthier by using a sugar free recipe.
If you want a parve desert that has a dairy flare then make dairy dishes with soy milk instead of cow’s milk. Soy milk is lower in fat, it is a good source of fiber and it is a good source of calcium. Soy milk can be purchased in a variety of flavors from mocha to chocolate to plain.
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Over the last several weeks we have talked about what traditional Jewish recipes can be made during the spring months. Today I’d like to continue that discussion and talk about fruit soups. Fruit soups are found in many Middle Eastern, Asian and African cultures, however, here in the West we don’t tend to add fruit, besides the tomato, to our soups and stews. This is a shame as fruit soups and stews can make a very refreshing dish on a hot Spring or Summer’s day.
While it is not a Jewish recipes, per se, one of my favorite fruit stews that I make for my family is “Tropical Chicken Stew.” It is a recipe I came up with one day while I was cooking dinner and realized I didn’t have any veggies besides a sweet onion. I did, however, have a great selection of tropical fruits that needed to be used before they spoiled. The results was a sweet and savory soup that was filling and healthy.
Tropical Chicken Stew
Ingredients
1 pound of chicken breasts cut up into cubes
3 sups of low sodium organic chick stock
3 kiwis peeled and diced
1 medium sweet onion diced
1 small can of diced pineapple
2 cups of cooked brown rice
1 cup of mango diced into small pieces
salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves of fresh garlic minced
1 tsp of fresh ginger minced
fresh mint
Directions
Spray the bottom of a soup pot and brown chicken pieces for about 4 to 5 minutes. Then stir in the onions and sauté until translucent.
Add in fruit and brown slightly. Toss in rice and allow the juices and natural oils to coat the rice.
Pour in the chicken stock and add seasoning. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat. Allow to cook until the fruit pieces are tender, the rice is heated through and the chicken has cooked all the way through. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Serve in a bowl and garnish with fresh mint. You can even top with fresh plain yogurt or sour cream.
Do you have a low fat Jewish recipe that you would like to share? Or, do you have a cooking question that you would like me to address in a future blog? Post your questions and recipes below.
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