|
|
April 15, 2011
Use Pesach to change eating habits
The adaptations needed for the holiday menu could be longterm.
MICHELLE DODEK
If you love matzah and all that goes with it, please read no further. Also, an apology to our Sephardi readers, as this article is directed at Ashkenazi observers of Passover, who have a more limited holiday menu and are looking for a healthier and more exciting culinary experience this year.
Pesach is the time of renewal, along with freedom from slavery. One type of slavery from which most people suffer in modern times is unhealthy attitudes toward food. The overabundance of prepared foods, packed with fats, salt and sugar, and preserved with unpronounceable chemicals, have become part of most Canadians’ diet. Changing how you approach food at Pesach could be the beginning of a new way of eating.
Vegetables and fruits are a huge part of healthy eating. People forget about the delicious ways vegetables can be cooked during Pesach, focusing on a longing for chametz that turns into imagined hunger and often contributes to overeating. Open any good vegetarian cookbook and you’ll find loads of great recipes. (My favorite cookbooks include Rebar, Cranks, Broccoli Forest and Quinoa 365.) Many of the recipes offered are parve (or can easily be prepared without milk products) and work beautifully with the meat you may be preparing. A few minor alterations may need to be made to avoid kitniyot, such as mustard, soy sauce and sesame seeds, but omission of these ingredients will certainly not ruin most recipes.
Try cooking kale in a wok with olive oil and smashed garlic cloves, sprinkling in balsamic vinegar and pine nuts when the kale is nearly wilted. Pair that with halibut steamed with citrus fruits and some new baby potatoes and you have a winner of a dinner. Prepare a huge green salad with your favorite vegetables and top it with toasted nuts and goat cheese and serve with a hearty soup like roasted yam and tomato or butternut-apple soup for a satisfying meal.
Perhaps eggplant Parmesan is up your alley – matzah meal is perfect for the breading all year round. Put the bubbling eggplant on the table with a delicious quinoa pilaf and a salad and voilà. Please note that not all rabbis recognize quinoa, the small grain-like member of the beet family, as kosher for Pesach. It has become popular because it is high in fibre, contains a complete protein, along with calcium and iron, and cooks in just 15 minutes.
Breakfast is a huge sticking point for many during Pesach. For those used to toast or a bagel with peanut butter to get going in the morning, it’s tough. Cereal lovers have to forgo their healthy, or not so healthy, bowl of flakes or loops unless they can stomach kosher-for-Passover “cereal.” Instead, try cooking one cup quinoa (with two cups of water) and eat it like oatmeal with brown sugar, raisins and/or milk. Also good is a smoothie with frozen or fresh fruits combined with milk, juice or yogurt.
Without bread, sandwiches don’t work very well. However, lunch can be a big salad full of many interesting items. Mixed greens or spinach make a great base. Add toasted walnuts and pumpkin seeds, cottage cheese, tuna, an array of sliced, cubed or shredded vegetables or cheeses and the salad is almost there. Try roasting cauliflower or cubes of butternut squash with olive oil, sage and salt and keeping them in a container in the fridge, ready to add to a salad. Balsamic vinegar and olive oil as a dressing is easy and delicious. If that’s not enough, also make some soup: broccoli-cheddar, vegetable or potato-leek soup will round out a lunch.
As for dessert, Pesach cakes are only ever made because, over the course of a year, people forget how dry and unappealing they are. A cake full of eggs, oil and cake meal! Why bother? Try a beautiful fruit salad and put two fruits in that you have never tried before, or add bits of dried fruit to make it even sweeter. Top a bowl of yogurt with dried cranberries, apricots, raisins or frozen berries for a treat.
Start fresh in more ways than one this Pesach. Ditch the heavy food and try vegetable-filled meals with fruit as your sweet. Of course, a nice piece of dark chocolate works, too, once in a while. If you have children, take them shopping with you and try to pick out fruits and vegetables that are unfamiliar. Let your kids choose what they would like in a salad and have them make it, too. After Pesach is over, don’t go back to the pasta and sauce: try to stay with local, seasonal produce as we roll into summer and the variety and flavor increases.
Have a happy, healthy Pesach. B’teiyavon.
Michelle Dodek is a local freelance writer and a longtime pescatarian and balabusta.
^TOP
|
|
