On about day TWO of isolation, I decided we would need a reliable batch of cookies to get through this pandemic/quarantine/homeschool/work-from-home situation. We love cookies in my household and I will find any excuse to incorporate them from improving lactation to supporting girl scouts! I think they are truly my only weakness in life. Oh, and did I really just use almost all of my flour and peanut butter during a food shortage making this twice in one week? Yes. It is that good. Peanut butter +chocolate+ cookies= survival.

I used the reliable and notorious New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe by Jaques Torres, tweaked it for some smooth peanut butter lusciousness, and TA-DAH! A worthy addiction. Enjoy! I’d bring the extras to my neighbors, friends, and work as usual…but we must shelter in place. #stayhome #eatcookies

These cookies are soft, chewy, and gooey, and maybe you won’t feel so guilty because it has less butter and more plant-based nut butters…yah? I make these into smaller cookies that yields about 36 total, and once I even baked half the dough into a 9 inch pan with some vanilla ice-cream on top. YUM!

This is a wonderful dish I have started making for my family to substitute a hearty and delicious beef sauce. We want to eat less meat, and more veggies, so if you are in the same boat- you will LOVE this dish! This pasta is made with a delicious and hearty vegan tomato sauce full of flavorful mushrooms marinated in garlic, shallots, and balsamic vinegar. This hearty sauce looks like it has actual beef, but it is much more flavorful and heart healthy!

My kids never choose to eat mushrooms, but they asked for seconds with this meal AND thought it was actually beef in there. I broke it to them, and they were at first shocked, but then happy to learn that they got their mushroom superpowers and enjoyed it! I love to tell my children about all the super powers vegetables and fruits give us. Mushrooms are rich in B vitamins and antioxidants such as selenium. These help our bodies fight all kinds of diseases, make our blood cells stronger, and provide us with energy. Mushrooms are also found to improve hearth and brain health, preventing various forms of neurological illnesses as we age. Mushrooms are also the only plant source for vitamin D, so if you follow a vegan or mostly plant-based life-style, mushrooms are very important! Mushrooms are also free of fat or cholesterol so they make for a wise and delicious substitute for meat.

The Flavor Agents

The texture of chopped mushrooms make them perfect to emulate that of meaty dishes. I use a combination of portabella caps and baby bellas, also known as cremini mushrooms. I simply pulse these in my food processor so that they are finely chopped to the consistency of coarse ground beef. If I have them available, I also love including dried mushrooms (such as these) because they often have a strong flavor that gives that unexpected umami that meat can have.

In a hot pan, I sauté the mushrooms in olive oil, salt and pepper until they become golden and all liquid has evaporated (the mushrooms release a bit of water while cooking). I then add some minced garlic, shallots, carrots and sauté them all together before adding the balsamic vinegar. This all simmers together to create an exceptionally tasty mushroom sauce!

Lastly, I add my homemade marinara sauce (any marinara sauce is fine), and allow this all to simmer for about 10 more minutes, for all flavors to combine.

This sauce is perfect for papparadelle pasta, penne, rotini, or whatver is your favorite!

For our busy weeknights, I opt to make this as a one pot meal. I add 1.5 cups of water to the sauce and throw in a pound of pasta to simmer right in the sauce! It really cannot get any easier, and all the flavors combine quite well this way. I have started using lentil pasta as it provides a nutrient dense source of protein. It also only takes about 6 minutes for the lentil pasta to cook al dente in this sauce.

Enjoy, from my kitchen to yours!

This is one delicious dish unique to North African cuisine. The deep green cilantro and chard stew the vegetables simmer in is a vibrant green hue for good reason. You can see the nutrition in its gorgeous color, and you can be sure that the flavor of this stew will inspire so many new dishes to add to your dinner repertoire! This green stew of chard and cilantro tastes fantastic and has that fragrant aroma of toasted garlic and cilantro common in some of my favorite dishes such as mulokhia, fasulya, or Syrian lentils with pasta. The stew is a broth braised with sautéed green chard, cilantro leaves, and garlic that is pureed into a fine green paste. This is truly a uniquely flavorful and nutrient dense stew to incorporate with many recipes, whether you wish to add fish, meat, or other vegetables. In the traditional Egyptian recipe of my grandmother, this healthful green broth is cooked with the nutritious root vegetable, taro, for a hearty stew to ladle over rice or quinoa for a delicious and complete plant-based meal.

What on earth is COLCASS or TARO?

Colcass is a common stew made in Egypt during the winter months. Colcass is simply the Arabic name for taro. It is a hardy root vegetable that is brown on the outside, but white flesh on the interior, with pink or purple striations. I could not find it fresh here in Chicago, although it is sold in the frozen aisle in any Middle Eastern market. I’d like to take minute to describe the incredible health benefits of taro below, but if you have no access to fresh taro or a Middle Eastern grocery store, then you could simply use potatoes or parsnips as I mention in the recipe.

Taro is commonly used in Asian and North African cuisines. Used as a local winter vegetable, it reflects the natural habit of eating what is in season. The vegetable is a brown tuber root that must be peeled. Once peeled, it is washed thoroughly to remove the slimy texture. The resulting vegetable is a gorgeous white and fibrous root that is similar to a parsnip and potato if they were cross-bred. There are pink striations throughout giving it a lovely color. Taro is high in fiber, antioxidants vitamins A, C, E, B6, folate, and it is even an excellent source for potassium, iron, and magnesium. Because of all of its high nutrient contents, taro is an excellent source of carbohydrates, and can help prevent heart disease and improve gut health due to all of the polyphenols found in the vegetable. It is definitely worth trying it, and is easy to implement if you use the frozen version from the Middle Eastern grocery aisles.

The Basic Ingredients

Taro, Parsnips, or Potatoes, the choice is yours!

As I mentioned, you may have a hard time finding taro. If you find it in the Middle Eastern market, you only need the vegetables in the bag, and not the frozen green herbs packet included (this recipe makes it from scratch!) Aside from using taro, you could use diced potatoes or parsnips. The most significant part of this recipe is the green broth made from the cilantro and chard. It’s important to use local and seasonable vegetables on hand, and because potatoes and parsnips are plentiful during the winters in Chicago, it makes for an excellent and delicious substitute. This dish inspires so many others because the broth is so tasty with many things. My kids could not stop licking up the broth from their spoons! I plan to cook this again with fish, cauliflower, chickpeas, and many other vegetables in this very broth. You will really love the base!

The Broth

Colcass in Egypt, is originally made with the broth of stew beef. My mom simmers meat with cardamom, bay leaves, coriander, salt and pepper when she makes this dish. Because I make this colcass as a plant-based version, I use vegetable broth but add on the referenced spices. I still sometimes cook stew beef on the side to offer it to my girls. They love this recipe with meat, and if you are a meat eater, please know that the meat is so incredible with the green stew of colcass!

Green chard and cilantro

To make the stew, you need one bunch of green chard, with the thick stems removed. You also need one bunch of cilantro leaves. Some cilantro stems are fine to include, as they are so full of flavor. You need to chop all the leaves in a food processor and then set them in a sieve to drain the water. This is so that you can easily sauté the greens to a crisp. If there is excess water, you will merely boil the leaves, but we want to toast them crispy. Once you add the garlic to the toasted greens, you will add some ground coriander, and the fragrant scent of garlic and cilantro will have you mesmerized. At this point, some broth is added and it is all pureed fine with an immersion blender, or a pestle if you have the patience and want to do it like my Teta (grandma in Arabic) did.

Once the remainder of the broth is added, I add cardamom, salt, and pepper and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.

Large, diced root vegetables are added, and if you are making the traditional Egyptian recipe, the cooked stew beef goes in at this point as well. The stew simmers for 5-10 minutes until the diced vegetables are fork tender. Potatoes can crumble, so you want to be sure to use a firm potato and not over cook it. The green stew is so flavorful and nutritious, I cannot wait to make this stew again with parsnips, potatoes, and even drizzled over white fish.

Check out my how-to video below: