Tag: summer

Nutrition + Health, Running, Summertime

Summer Dal with Fennel, Coconut + Dill

by RebeccaLeave a Comment on Summer Dal with Fennel, Coconut + Dill

At this point in the summer, it’s easy to start feeling a little hot, overheated, and irritable, both internally (mood and digestion), and externally (skin irritation and inflammation). 


Your body takes cues from nature and often reacts to what the environment is like. When it comes to your body’s symptoms of imbalance, it all comes back to digestion. Since food, and whether you’re digesting it, literally becomes the body over the coming weeks and months. 


Signals of Balance in the Summer Months
Feeling cool, calm, and optimistic with ample energy
Taking breaks rather than pushing through work (or play)
Staying hydrated and nourished
No cravings for certain foods

Signals of Imbalance in the Summer Months
Feeling hot, inflamed, easily frustrated, and hot-tempered
Overworking yourself and perfectionism
Allergic reactions
Regular headaches
Rashes
Acidic digestion and reflux
Craving spicy, sour or salty foods
Loose stool or diarrhea
Low energy

Summer’s Food Remedy

What’s surprising to some is that during the height of summer, our digestive capacity is actually lower. This is why on extremely hot days, we often have a low appetite. This may be especially apparent if you’re running lots of summer mileage but feeling less hungry afterwards or know your appetite doesn’t match your energy output. And shoving more food in when you’re not hungry or digesting it well is counterproductive since your body can’t digest and assimilate well when it’s not digesting and assimilating well!

When we look at the seasonal foods that grow in the summer, many of them are cooling and juicy. Just the opposite of how you may be feeling internally or externally! 

So when we look to what should go in our meals to balance the heat of summer, it’s best to eat foods that are easily digestible when you have any symptoms that fall in the imbalance category above. That means (gently) cooked foods that are chewed thoroughly. But it also means incorporating ingredients such as vegetables, herbs and spices, and fats/flavorings that are naturally cooling to balance the heat. 

For cooling vegetables, fennel, zucchini and summer squash are excellent and abundant to incorporate this time of year! So too are cucumbers, cooling mint, basil, cilantro, parsley, and dill.

That’s where this dal comes in. It’s easily digestible, flavorful, cooling with fennel, dill, and a little coconut milk stirred in, and especially important, tasty! 

Much of my nutrition practice is focused on individuals and athletes with digestive health issues such as leaky gut, food allergies and intolerances, chronic GI distress, malabsorption of foods and nutrients, and inflammation. If you’re tired, stressed, and not really sure what to eat to help or hurt anymore, I invite you to reach out to me for more personalized support.

Featuring cooling summer ingredients, this is a dal to eat when the weather is hot, dry, and irritation-inducing—and when you’ve been feeling the same!

Prep:  15 minutes  | Cook: 40-50  minutes  | Serves: 4

1 ½ cups red lentils
1 tsp. turmeric
5 cups water
1 ¼ tsp. mineral salt, divided
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 tsp. cumin seeds
½ tsp. mustard seeds
½ tsp. grated fresh ginger root
1 large onion, diced
1 large fennel bulb (~500 grams), diced
1 handful fresh dill (~15 grams), minced
2 tsp. hot chili sauce, or ½ a hot chili, minced
14 oz. / 400 ml lite coconut milk (1 can)
Juice of 1/2 to 1 lime, to taste
1 cup dry brown rice, soaked for at least 4 hours
2 cups water
Sliced crisp fresh greens, such as cabbage or romaine, to serve

  • Rinse the red lentils until the water runs clear; then put in a large pot with the turmeric and ½ tsp. salt, and cover with 5 cups of water. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until cooked – that is, when the lentils start to break down and merge together when stirred. 
  • While the lentils are cooking, heat the oil in a large sauté pan over a medium heat and, once it’s hot, add the cumin, mustard seeds, and ½ tsp. salt. Thirty seconds later, when they pop, add the onion, fennel, and ginger, and cook, stirring every now and then, until soft and caramelized, about 20 minutes. You may need to add in a couple splashes of water. Cook with a lid on.
  • Add the chili sauce or chilies and dill. Stir and cook for a couple minutes more, then tip into the lentil pot along with the coconut milk; if the mixture looks as if it could do with being a bit looser, add a little water. Bring the mix up to a bubble, then take off the heat and stir through the lime juice.
  • To make the rice, drain and rinse from it’s soaking liquid. Then combine in a small pot with 2 cups of water, and the remaining ¼ tsp. Salt. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, cover and cook for 40 minutes. 
  • Serve the rice, sliced fresh greens and dal in a serving bowl. Garnish with a couple of sprigs of dill as desired.

Notes: If you’ve been feeling especially inflamed, reduce the hot chili sauce and mustard seeds by half.

Journal, Nutrition + Health, Summertime

roasted zucchini and crookneck squash with pumpkin seeds, oregano, and olives

by RebeccaLeave a Comment on roasted zucchini and crookneck squash with pumpkin seeds, oregano, and olives

I went out to harvest in the garden this morning and after using up about 20 crookneck squash in the last couple days, I harvested a dozen more. And a dozen cucumbers and three tomatoes. I trimmed the tomato plant back a bit so I can see several others are nearly ready, and William on corn duty tells me there are six or more ears that need to be used now. They’ll be as many or more of everything tomorrow.

I somewhat jokingly wrote in an instagram post several weeks back that I’ve found the best way to eat more vegetables is to grow a lot of vegetables. No jokes anymore since at this point in the season, it’s an incredible fact. For me anyways, this goes particularly because even though the romanticism of growing our own has long since worn off, there’s a huge sense of obligation to not waste what we’ve watched growing all season, to not waste the many hours William has spent watering and sifting compost, pulling weeds, and turning over beds.

Me? I mostly just harvest and cook and then take the glory. As is true for most gardeners and farmers, we tend to plant extra of everything because inevitably one or more crops fail– and people who grow things are slightly addicted to growing more things. (A slight problem when the backyard is producing so much). This year so far, nothing has failed. Literally nothing except a slow start and replanting of beets which thankfully won’t be ready until the summer squash, cucumbers, and corn are about done.

Anyhow, one thing I’ve been thinking about all summer is how very little has been stated publicly, in the mainstream US news anyway, about lifestyle factors that can help us through this pandemic season. Eating more vegetables, filling ourselves up on all the colors, nutrients, phytonutrients, and generally eating more whole, looks-like-it-came-directly-from-the-earth, foods can go a long way. I was asked to write a little more in-depth about this topic recently for Territory Run Co., so if you’d like more details on specific foods, nutrients, or lifestyle factors to help through this season (like mindfulness for stress relief), you can find the article here.

Meanwhile, I’ll be trying to figure out how to gift a few harvest extras this week, and chop, roast, sauté, etc. my way through the others. A little Italian flavor inspired, this combination of roasting zucchini and crookneck squash, and topping it with an herby, olive, garlic, and pumpkin seed topping is just one way to add some pizazz to eating your vegetables. If you have a grill basket and would like to take the cooking outside, grilling the squash instead of roasting will be a nice shift in methods.

Roasted Zucchini + Crookneck Squash with Pumpkin Seeds, Oregano, and Olives, serves 4 as a side
Use any type of summer squash you have available. The smaller, less seedy ones have the best texture.

4-8 small to medium summer squash, chopped (enough to fit a sheet pan or baking tray)
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
1/4 tsp. salt
20 fresh oregano leaves, finely minced (about two large sprigs)
15 small black olives (about 1/4 cup), rinsed, drained and sliced

  • Preheat your oven to 425 F. Line a baking pan with parchment and then spread the chopped squash evenly, so it’s mostly a single layer. Sprinkle with a little salt and roast until soft and borderline mushy, about 30-40 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, lightly toast the pumpkin seeds in a pan on the stovetop, and then remove them to a cutting board. Chop them until they’re in medium-small pieces, small enough to not be able to tell they’re pumpkin seeds, but not super-fine.
  • Mince the garlic and add it to a small dish, along with the pumpkin seeds, salt, minced oregano and olives.
  • When the squash is done roasting, slide it into a serving bowl, and then stir the herby pumpkin seed mixture throughout and serve.
Summertime

Summer’s End Tomato Crumble

by Rebecca1 Comment on Summer’s End Tomato Crumble

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Every summer around this time, I make a version of this crumble. So much so that I can’t help but get to late-August and start to crave it when I’m inundated with too many tomatoes.

Also every year, we go to the coast for a family reunion over Labor Day weekend. When we get back and September has arrived, the light begins to change dramatically and the fall colors soon set in. So this is the last week of true summer.

 

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And thus it’s a proper time to make a savory dinner crumble, filled up with the season’s best tomatoes and enjoyed on one of these still-long, slow evenings.

 

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Summer’s End Tomato Crumble, serves 4-5
I love to add just a bit of non-dairy cheese to the crumble topping. I think it adds a nice flavor complexity that the otherwise simple ingredients need. Also, I’ve made this so many times and it’s quick and easy to get in the oven, but sometimes corners are cut and I can tell in the result. For instance, fresh herbs really make the seasoning. Use oregano, thyme, or even rosemary, minced quite fine. Add arrowroot flour to the tomato and bean filling if using large slicing tomatoes, but feel free to skip if using smaller cherry varieties. The flour will thicken it up when the tomatoes are extra juicy.

1 1/2 pounds / 700 g ripe tomatoes
1 tsp coarse sea salt
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups cooked white beans such as flageolet or small lima beans
1/4 cup arrowroot flour (optional, see notes)

1 1/2 cups / 140 g rolled oats, gluten-free as necessary
6 tbsp almond flour
1/2 cup / 25 g grated vegan parmesan or cheddar cheese (I prefer Vtopian aged cheddar)
4 sprigs fresh oregano or thyme, leaves picked and chopped
1 pinch sea salt
1/4 cup / 55 g coconut oil

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C.
  • Rinse the tomatoes and cut in halves if using cherries, or dice if using large slicers. Place in a 9-inch pie pan or baking dish and toss with sea salt, apple cider vinegar white beans, and arrowroot flour if using.
  • Prepare the crumble in a separate bowl. Start by thoroughly mixing oats, almond flour, grated cheese, oregano and salt. Add the coconut oil in small pieces. Use your hands to mix until large crumbs begin to form. Pour the crumble filling evenly over the tomatoes. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the tomato juices are bubbling around the edges and the crumble is firm and browned.