Category: Shabbos

Green Guacamole

I’m embarrassed to tell you how old I was when I first ate avocado. I was scared to try it for the longest time. But once I did, I was hooked. It’s buttery taste and creamy texture lends itself well to a variety of applications from breads and salads to desserts and pastries. Avocados don’t just taste good, they’re good for you too! They’re rich in healthy monounsaturated fat, folate, potassium, as well as many vitamins. As for me, I’m catching up on lost time. This guacamole is just one preparation that I enjoy!

Green Guacamole

2 avocados
1/2 green bell pepper, finely diced
1 jalapeno, seeds and veins removed, minced
1 scallion, chopped
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp olive oil
kosher salt, to taste
cilantro, optional
chips, for serving

Method:

Peel and diced 1 avocado. Add to a bowl and mash. Peel and dice the second avocado and add to the bowl without mashing. Add peppers, jalapeno, scallions, olive oil, lime and salt and mix to combine. Add chopped fresh cilantro, if desired (I’m not a fan of cilantro so I leave it out, but it is a classic accompaniment to guacamole, so if you like it, go ahead and put it in!) Serve with chips.

NOTE: If jalapenos are too hot for your taste, use a long hot green pepper instead.

TIP: Always wear gloves when deseeding a chile pepper as capsaicin (the chemical that gives peppers their heat) can stick to your hands. Since capsaicin is only found in the seeds and veins, you can control the heat factor by eliminating some, or all, of the seeds.

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Stuffed Roasted Eggplants

With the chagim behind us, I think we can all use some light and healthy recipes for a while. While I’m transitioning to a low carb diet, I don’t want to feel hungry, and I definitely don’t want to feel deprived. For me, the trick is to spice it up, so that I’m not left with bland and boring bowls of salad. Preparing healthy recipes that are packed with flavor helps to curb my cravings and keep me satisfied. Which brings me to this recipe…

Fire-roasted eggplants are traditionally used to make chatzilim or babaganoush, but using them as a base for the Israeli salad really turns this dish into a complete meal. I like to smear roasted garlic hummus on the eggplant when it’s piping hot and then load it with Israeli salad, sprinkle some chickpeas all around, and finish it with a drizzle of tahini and olive oil. Feel free to load on your fixings of choice. Feta cheese works really well too!

It seems like every recipe book I open has a different recipe for Israeli salad. You’d think it impossible to come up with so many variations, it’s a salad after all. But that’s just the thing. Israeli salad is almost as diverse as the people who eat it. Some like its texture to be chunky, others tiny. Some load on the fresh herbs, others stare clear. Take my husband and I. He’s squarely a tomato & cucumber kind of guy. No onions, no herbs. Just 2 simple veggies, in a ratio of 2:1. Me? I’m not too picky. Leave out the cilantro and I’m good to go. Feel free to follow my basic recipe below, or create your own.

What’s your favorite way to prepare Israeli salad? Share it with me in the comments below!

Roasted Eggplants with Israeli Salad
1 eggplant
1 tbsp olive oil
kosher salt
Israeli salad (recipe follows)
roasted chickpeas, optional
1/4 cup store-bought or homemade hummus
1/4 cup tahini
fresh parsley and lemon, for finishing
optional additions: falafel, shawarma, red cabbage salad, Israeli pickles, harissa

For the eggplants:

For optimum flavor, you can fire-roast the eggplants over an open flame on your stovetop. Because this is messy and time consuming, I prefer to broil them. To do this, cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and place flesh-side down on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and and sprinkle with salt and broil on high on the top rack for 20-25 minutes, until skin is charred and the flesh is soft. Turn over and sprinkle flesh with salt (and pepper, if desired).

For Israeli salad:

2 plum tomatoes
1/2 english cucumber
1/2 red pepper
1/2 red onion
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
fresh parsley, to taste

Method:

Finely dice tomatoes, cucumber, pepper and onion. Drizzle with olive oil, lemon and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with fresh parsley or chop finely and add to salad.

To plate, place 1/2 eggplant on a dish. Season with salt and pepper. Smear with hummus. Spoon Israeli salad onto eggplant, garnish with parsley and sprinkle on some roasted chickpeas. Drizzle with tahini and finish with a final squeeze of lemon.

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Bubby’s Cabbage Soup with Flanken


Succos is one of my most favorite times of year. I love the smell in the air, the breeze in my hair, the fall harvest and the brilliant autumn leaves. The crisp air is the perfect backdrop for this warm, hearty soup. With cabbage, apples, tomatoes, onions and flanken in a sweet tomato broth, this bowl of goodness is sure to be a star at your Yom Tov table. The more you cook this soup, the better and thicker it becomes, so don’t mind rewarming it for several meals!

To view the reel on Instagram click here.

Bubby’s Cabbage Soup with Flanken

1 medium head of cabbage, sliced
1 onion, sliced
2 green apples, peeled and diced or grated
2 soft tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup golden raisins
2 pieces flanken
2 marrow bones
3 15 oz. cans tomato sauce
7 canfuls of water
1/3 cup sugar, or to taste
salt and pepper, to taste
juice of 1/2 lemon

Method:

Add all ingredients to the pot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for a few hours, until the broth has thickened and the meat has softened.

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Honey Challah with assorted Toppings

Of course I had wanted to get this post up before Rosh Hashanah, but it wasn’t meant to be. Still, most people continue to eat sweet round challah until after Succos, so I’m sure this recipe will prove useful (and there’s always next year!).

My sister-in-law Ruti used to make challah each and every Shabbos. She was always looking for new recipes, so I bought her Tamar Ansh’s challah book. After trying many different recipes, she came up with her own variation and my adapted version has been my go-to recipe ever since! I truly believe that delicious challah is a result of the love you put into it. If you just dump the ingredients into a bowl and mix it, the challa with turn out dense and heavy. For soft and fluffy challa, you need to take the care to sift the flour and knead the dough. I don’t have a bread machine, so I make my challah by hand. For me, it’s a labor of love. I’m happy to share Ruti’s recipe with you, but keep in mind that your altitude, humidity, and other factors all affect the dough.

Personally, when it comes to challah, I want to taste purely the bread. I don’t mind something sprinkled over the top, but I don’t play around with the dough. However, if you’d like to experiment, here are some filling ideas to mix into the dough before braiding:

– craisins and orange zest
– garlic and rosemary or sage
– raw or caramelized onions & poppy seeds
– fresh fruit (apples, blueberries, strawberries)
– dried fruit (apricots, figs)
– raisins and nuts
– chocolate chips
– olives
– oats

Toppings:

– honey (see below)
– maple syrup (see below)
– sprinkles or nonpareils
– brown sugar
– cinnamon-sugar
– sweet crumbs (see recipe below)
– za’atar
– sesame seeds
– poppy seeds
– minced onion flakes
– minced garlic flakes
– “everything” (my favorite!) : sesame seeds, poppy seeds, minced onion, minced garlic, coarse salt

Honey Challah with assorted toppings
adapted from my sister-in-law, Ruti Apfelbaum

Yield: 6 large or 8 medium challahs

4 packets (or 3 tbsp) rapid rise yeast (see note)
2 tbsp sugar
4 cups lukewarm water, divided
1 1/2 cups honey
2 tbsp salt
1 1/4 c + 2 tbsp canola oil
1 egg
5 lbs. high gluten or bread flour, sifted
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, beaten, for eggwash
toppings of choice (see options above and recipes below)

Method:

Add the yeast, sugar and 1 cup lukewarm water to a bowl and rest for a few minutes until the yeast starts to bloom. Add the honey, salt, 1 1/4 c oil and egg and mix to incorporate. Stir in 3 cups of lukewarm water.

Add half of the flour and mix with a spoon until creamy. Add almost all of the rest of the flour (leaving over 1/2 cup or so) and knead with your hands until your dough is smooth and elastic, adding more flour as needed, until the dough is no longer sticky.

When you are done kneading, grease the dough with remaining oil and cover it with a towel. Put it in a warm place (I like to put my oven on 200 degrees and put it on top of the oven). Leave the dough to rise for 1 1/2-2 hours. Pound it down, take challa for hafrashas challah, and braid. When you are done shaping the loaves, leave them to rise for 30 minutes. Brush with egg and topping of your choice. Bake at 350 until golden brown, about 35 minutes. (check the bottoms of the challahs, they should be browned and hollow when you tap on them).

NOTES: the yeast come in envelopes of 3, use 1 3-pack plus a fourth packet from another 3-pack.\
to halve the recipe, simply divide all the ingredients in half besides the egg and use 1 full egg in the recipe.

ALLERGY NOTE: I have prepared this recipe without any eggs, and it works great!

Sweet Crumb Topping:

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 – 1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch sea salt

Mix with a spoon until crumbly and sprinkle over challah.

Honey or Maple Syrup Glaze:

You can mix some honey or syrup in with the egg wash and brush over challah. For more of a sticky glaze, eggwash the challah as usual and bake. As soon as the challah comes out of oven, brush liberally with honey or maple syrup (you can warm it on the stovetop or microwave it to make it easier to spread). You’ll have a sweet and sticky glaze.

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Blueberry Apple Crisp

I’m not much of a reader. I don’t have the patience to read page by page and wait for the good stuff to happen. I’d rather just watch the movie. I’m more of a magazine kind of gal, and I read them from back to front. I like short articles, little tidbits of information, and pictures – I let them do the talking! So instead of curling up to a good book on Shabbos, I have my trusty Binah magazine, the Jewish Press, and if I’m lucky, a few good food or gossip mags to boot. But I have to be honest. When it comes to The Jewish Press, I only read 2 columns – The Agunah Chronicles and Dear Dr. Yael. My husband always makes fun of me, but can I tell you a little secret? He only reads the classifieds and he’s not looking for a job!

One thing I did get out of The Jewish Press though, is the inspiration for this recipe. They used to have a health column written by a nutritionist named Shani Goldner. I actually became a client of hers, but that’s a story for another day. She has a litened up apple crisp recipe which I’ve adapted to use different types of fruits. I love to make it because it doesn’t have any margarine and it only uses one bowl. Here is my apple-blueberry version, but I have also tried this with apples and cranberries, apples and peaches, and just plain old apples. Whichever way you make it, this crisp is sure to please. You can serve it up as a side dish, or for dessert topped with vanilla ice cream.

Apple Blueberry Crisp

5 apples
1/2 container blueberries (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup sugar (increase to 1/2 cup if using tart cranberries)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp whole wheat flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
4 tbsp canola oil

Method:

Peel and dice apples. Rinse blueberries. Add apples, blueberries, sugar, cinnamon and flour into a bowl and mix. Add to a greased pie dish. In the same bowl, mix oats, flour, brown sugar, walnuts and oil and sprinkle on top of fruit. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes – 1 hour, until topping is golden brown and fruit begins to bubble.

VARIATION: instead of the oat topping,  use this vanilla crumb topping and sprinkle with cinnamon.

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