serves 4-6

1/4      cup olive oil

2          medium onion, Julienne

2          cup lentils

1 1/2   cups coarse bulgur #3

salt to taste

-Heat the olive oil in a heavy pot. Sprinkle the onion with 1/8 teaspoon salt, toss well, and drop in the oil.  Cook the onion until caramelized but not burned.  Remove the pot from the fire, and with slotted spoon, remove the onion and place on tray lined with paper towel.  Set aside.

-Wait until the oil cool down, add 8 cups water and the lentils, and then place back on the fire.  Bring back to a boil and cook the lentil until done but not mushy.  Add salt and the bulgur.  Stir and bring back to a boil.  Cover and cook over low heat for 15 minutes.  Turn off the heat and let the bulgur pilaf rest, covered, for 10 minutes.  Spoon the pilaf into shallow serving platter and sprinkle with the caramelized onions.  Serve with tomato cucumber salad.

Tomato and Cucumber Salad

serves 4

2       medium tomato, diced

3       small cucumber, diced

6       scallion, chopped

1       punch of parsley, chopped

4      tablespoons lemon juice

4      tablespoons olive oil

salt to taste

-Toss the vegetables in a salad bowl.

-Mix the olive oil, the lemon juice and the salt.  Drizzle over the vegetable and toss gently.

I’ve been, as anyone know, lecturing my husband on his intake of food ever since we’ve been married.  I know that in his younger days he was a world class eater, and even though he’s now a bit older, he hasn’t slowed down all that much.  But now, after having returned from my vacation, I find that I now have to lighten up on him, primarily because I came back home ten pounds heavier than when I left.  I would like to say that I enjoyed every calorie that has now stayed on my hips, but as a nutritionist who usually preaches restraint, and light eating, I am forced to say I shamefully overdid i.

Eating at local markets and restaurants is a must in order to truly appreciate the culture and the country your are visiting.  It’s better than, say, eating at an American fast food joint when in Paris or Rome.

My point is this: A vacation is a vacation, so don’t worry about a couple, or 10 in my case, extra pounds when dieting will make your holiday less pleasurable.  You can always lose a few pounds through exercise and eating restraint after you’re back home, but you may never be able to get back to a wonderful restaurant you pass by while on your vacation.

A good idea while traveling is to try find restaurants where the locals eat. and try to avoid the places that are heavily advertised in travel brochures and magazines.  When I am in Rome, I investigate the side streets for little trattorias (family cafes).  If the menu outside the front door is in English as well, you know it’s a tourist place.  If the menu is only in the local language, you have a good chance of hitting a gastronomical home run.  Restaurant owners know that tourists will not be back in any event, the result being the cooking that is most likely haphazard and the prices will be higher.  There are exceptions to this rule, the very expensive restaurants for example, who are protective of their international reputation.

Here is salad recipe that I make to help me lose my 10 extra pounds

Cucumber, Carrot and Oregano Salad

serves 4

4           small seedless cucumber, or pickling cucumbers

2           carrots

1           cup fresh oregano leaves

4           tablespoons crumbled feta cheese

4           tablespoons olive oil

4           tablespoons lemon juice

zest of one lemon

salt and pepper to taste

-Slice the cucumbers and carrots into thin rounds.

-In a large mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients except the feta cheese.

-Mix well, adjust the seasoning then sprinkle the cheese on top.

The word “salad” has made it into a great many languages-in Italy it’s “insalata,” in France, it’s “salade,” in Arabic, it’s “salata.”  This gives away the knowledge that fresh green vegetables and red ripe tomatoes are universal food, and that’s as it should be.

I was stunned when I first came to America that supermarkets carried a number of salad dressings that I ‘d never before heard of.  French dressing, Italian dressing, Russian dressing, dressing with this and dressing without that…  Yet in France and Italy, French dressing is vinaigrette and Italian dressing in olive oil and vinegar with sweet basil.  In the Levant salad dressing is generally extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice, seasoned with salt, pepper and fresh mint.

One would be stared at by the waiter in any of these countries if one ordered only a salad, even though it’s a common practice here in America.  You would be accommodated, but the waiter would do a “Cafe’ Le Beouf” —Prairie Home Companion –on you.

There is always a way to carry a head of lettuce

Local Farmers’ market with its array of fresh vegetables should give you a good incentive to start chopping.

Fattoush Salad

serves 6

10        leaves Romaine lettuce

1          punch parsley, chopped

2         medium tomato, diced

2         baby seedless cucumber, diced

1          small red onion or scallion, chopped

8         radishes, thinly sliced

1         green bell pepper, diced

2        8-inch pita loaves

2        teaspoon dry mint

1/4    cup Mediterranean  sumac

1/2    cup lemon juice

1/2    cup olive oil

salt to taste

-Cut the pita into 1-inch square pieces.  Bake in 300 F.degree oven until golden and crisp.  Remove from the oven and set aside.

-Place all the vegetables in large salad bowl.

-Sprinkle with the mint, sumac and the salt.

-Mix the lemon juice with the olive oil and drizzle over the vegetables.  Toss well until vegetable well coated.

-Spoon the vegetable in a salad bowl, top with the toasted pita chips and serve.

6       tablespoons olive oil

1       medium onion, chopped

1       16-ounce can diced tomato with juice

2       cups water

1        cup cooked garbanzo beans

1 1/2  cup coarse bulgur wheat #3

salt and pepper to taste

-In heavy pot, heat the olive oil.  Saute the onion in the olive oil until the onion are translucent.  Add the tomato, the water, the garbanzo beans and the seasoning.  Bring to a boil.

-Add the bulgur wheat, stir and bring back to boil.  Stir again, cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes.  Turn off the heat and keep the pot cover for 5 minutes.  Serve hot.

Cabbage and Radish Salad

serves 4

2     cups chopped green cabbage

2     cups chopped red cabbage

1/2  cup sliced radishes

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/8  teaspoon dry mint

6    tablespoons olive oil

6    tablespoons lemon juice

salt to taste

-Toss the vegetables together.

-Sprinkle the mint over the vegetables.

-Whisk the lemon juice and the olive oil and drizzle over the vegetables.  Toss and serve.

In Italy, various vegetable colors are used to color pasta—spinach for green, tomatoes for red, and even octopus ink for black pasta.

But all such colors are available in the stores here in America so there’s no need to use vegetables or other natural products with which to color eggs.  I think that’s unfortunate, because I would suppose that using natural colors would be of some interest to children during Easter time.

Research  tells us that beets originally came from plants in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.  The first mention of these sea plants appeared in an Assyrian text describing their planting in the hanging gardens of Babylon around 800 B.C.  Babylon.  The ancient Greeks presented beets as one of their offerings to the sun god Apollo.  The earliest Greek name for beets was “teutlon,” most likely because their foliage resembled squid tentacles.   Roman writers noted a variety of different colors in the leaves of beets.  Until the 3^rd century, people concentrated on the leaves of beets and left the root alone.  Then, the Romans began using the roots for medicinal purposes.  They were used as a curative broth to treat fevers and other ailments.  The first mention of using beet roots in cooking was in a cookbook in the fifth century A.D. written by Marcus Gavius Apicius, a Roman gourmet.

One supposes that while boiling the entire beet plant so the leaves could be used, someone tasted the broth, which came mostly from the root.  Accidents abound in history, and we can imagine that is how beet roots as food came about.

One also imagines that the Romans took the beet plant to every corner of their empire, which resulted in the spread of beets throughout Europe, which were then referred to as, “Roman beets.” 

While Europeans used the root during the Middle Ages, the leaf, called “selg,” or “silq,” began being used in the Middle East in dishes that featured the leaves cooked in various ways.  There are dishes in Lebanon and Syria that still use either beet leaves or swiss chard, a relative,–mixed with black-eyed peas or bulgur wheat– and which are called, “silq.”

The beet fell into obscurity for a time in the Middle Ages until an Italian physician and gourmand, Bartolomeo Sacchi, wrote a book entitled, “On Right Pleasure and Good Health.”  It was the first modern Italian diet and cookbook.  He described using the leaves of the beet for sauce, and the root for sweetening one’s breath after eating garlic.  From that time onward, agronomists began experimenting with beet roots to improve the variety.  German gardeners were credited with developing beets which are the closest to their present form.  From Germany, the use of beets in cooking spread to Poland, Russia and the Baltic countries.  Borscht soup is famous for the use of beets.

A Russian chemist, Andreas Marggraf, discovered that crystals from syrup extracted from Silesian beets were identical to crystals obtained from sugar cane.  But the German were the first to plant and process beet specifically to produce sugar.  From there, sugar beets were developed, replacing sugar cane which grew only in the tropics. 

Sugar beet cultivation started in the America in the 1830s, when German and French immigrants arrived bringing the necessary technology with them.

In the Levant (Lebanon, Syria and Jordan), pickled white turnips and cabbage are turned pink with the addition of a partial beet root in the jar.  Here couple recipes for turnips that I hope you will try and enjoy.

Beet Spread

Serves 4

Two    beets, boiled and grated

Two    tablespoons tahini*

Two    cloves garlic, mashed

One fourth     cup lemon juice

Salt to taste

-In a chilled salad bowl, whisk tahini, garlic, yogurt, lemon juice and salt.

-Fold the grated beets and adjust the seasonings.  If the mixture is too thick add a little water or lemon juice. 

*Tahini is pureed sesame seeds.  Tahini is available in most grocery stores.

Cabbage and Beet Salad

Serves 4

One     pound beet, boiled and peeled

Two    cups shredded white cabbage

One     cup chopped white part of the fennel

Four    tablespoons olive oil

Three  tablespoons lemon juice

One     cloves garlic, mashed

One fourth     tablespoon crushed anise seeds

Salt to taste

-Slice the beets into thin round.

-In a large salad bowl, toss cabbage and fennels.  Add the sliced beets.

-Whisk olive oil with lemon juice, garlic, anise and salt. 

-Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss gently.

Fennel bulbs can be kept refrigerated for up to a week.  Once cut, it should be used immediately to avoid the cut surface discoloring.  Fennel is a great addition to a green salad.  The bulb can be braised, sauteed, baked or grilled.  For sauting, whip abou ttwo tablespoons of butter per bulb, with chopped garlic, then saute until is tender.  To enhance the flavor of the sauteed fennel, add some Arak, or Pernod, or Aquavit.  Braising amounts to sauteing the fennel in a small amount of olive oil in a tightly cloased pan.  For extra flavor, add some wine, cover and bake it for about 20 minutes in the oven.

Give fennel a try, but start slowly, because fennel has a very strong flavor.

Fennel and Cranberries  Salad

serves 4

1           fennel bulb, thinly sliced

4          celery stalks, finely chopped

1          cup dried cranberries

1/2     cup coarsely ground walnuts, toasted

1         Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced

zest to one lemon

1/4    cup mango juice

1/8    teaspoon freshly ground annis seeds

dash chili pepper, optional

4         tablespoons lemon juice

4         tablespoons olive oil

-Mix the mango juice with the lemon zest, the lemon juice, the anise  seeds, the  chili pepper and the olive oil,  and then soak the cranberries in this sauce for ten minutes.

-Toss the fennel with the apples and the celery.  Add the cranberries with the marinade to this mixture and toss gently.

-Sprinkle the salad with the walnuts and serve.

-Add the cranberries with the mango juice to the

As an example, leaves of the spearmint plant used in salads, cheese and drinks are believed by advocates of folk medicines stimulate the appetite, strength the stomach and ease menstruation cramps.

Onions, which are used in all kinds of cooking, were worshiped by ancient Egyptian, who believed that onion helped the dead to breath again after reincarnation.  Onions were placed in the tombs alongside the dead and embalmed pharaohs.  Onions also were fed to the workers who build the pyramids, the notion being that they gave the strength they needed for the labors.  My grandmother credit her long life to her lifelong intake of onions.  And who am I to argue with a woman who lived to the age of 114?

Parsley is used in salads, sauces and soups.  It is used in the Levant to diminish flatulence, for stomach ache and as a diuretic.  Miraculously, it also removes garlic odor for one’s breath.

Sweet basil, used either dried or fresh in tomato sauce, in salads and in meat dishes, is used by folk medicine advocates as a mild  sedative.

Bay leaves, used mainly to flavor soups and it’s oil to make soap.  Bay leaves was a symbol of victory in the Roman Empire, and employed as heroes crowns.  In some cultures it was believed that by including bay leaves inside and article of merchandise, it would be sold.  It was believed that washing with soap made from bay oil would protect one from bad magic.  Bay oil was used for bruises on the body for asthma and for relieving toothache.

Garlic, used for flavoring of almost everything-except desserts- was used by ancient Greeks as a gift to the goddess Hykat to drive out evil spirits.  More recent mythology has it that garlic will keep vampires at a safe distance.  The comedian Buddy Hackett once announced that you would never by kissed by the angel of death if you ate garlic.

All that aside, there’s no question that garlic is a healthy additive.  It counters high blood pressure, high blood sugar and diminishes the accumulation of cholesterol in your arteries.  It’s antiseptic properties help relieve colds and infectious diseases.  For bee sting, cut the garlic clove in half and rub it on the sting.

Mixed Herb and Feta Cheese  Salad With Walnut Oil Dressing 

serves 4-6

1        punch Italian parsley, chopped

6       leaves Romaine lettuce, chopped

1       cup fresh oregano

3       scallions, chopped

1/4  cup chopped fresh mint leaves

1       red bell pepper, diced

2      tomatoes, diced

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted

zest of one lemon

Juice of one lemon

5    tablespoons walnut oil

1/2  cup crumpled feta cheese

-Toss greens with the walnuts.

-Whisk the lemon juice, with lemon zest and the walnut oil.  Drizzle over the mixed greens.  Toss gently. 

-Sprinkle with the feta cheese and serve.