This Nasturtium Pesto, with it’s bright green color and bold flavor rings in Spring time. It’s of course, perfect over grain-free and gluten-free pasta. I served mine with millet capellini by Big Green Organic Foods because it’s pretty close to the real thing. This pesto is great over eggs in the morning, a topping on fish, or avocado toast, it’s the ultimate condiment. It is super easy to make, 9 ingredients total in the food processor, mortar and pestle or high speed blender.

This sweet, exotic, crunchy spice topping is the sweet tooth’s answer to its savory counterpart from Egypt. Regular dukkah is a wonderful topping for labne (check out my Coconut Labne here), salads, soups, and main dish items while sweet flower dukkah can be sprinkled over dessert or crowning your favorite yogurt or hot cereal, at the start of the day. Be daring and use it on a savory dish. It’s packed with protein and antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. I love adding dried edible flowers to this dukkah as they add a pop of color. This is the thing I will be bringing with me everywhere this summer. Make a double recipe and keep some on hand for a last minute gift.

Preserved lemon is typically found in Moroccan tagines and in Ayurvedic cuisine as a remedy for stomach issues and goes as far back to 18th century England. Adding preserved lemons to a recipe is like adding a pop of color to your finished dish, chopped up pieces of the lemon rind will add such a nice flare to salad dressing, soups, pesto, sauces, baked chicken, or fish dishes and beyond. I love adding small pieces of preserved lemon to many savory recipes for that special umami surprise when one would not expect it.

Recently, I completed a 10-day winter reset using Macrobiotic and Ayurvedic principles in the food I prepared, and my husband and I ate.

In Macrobiotics, founded by George Osawa, one of the main principles is to be in harmony with nature. Also, what is emphasized is an acid, alkaline balance as well as the selection of foods which are considered anti-inflammatory, organic, and locally sourced when possible and based on combining healthy traditional food, including fresh vegetables, whole grains or their products, beans, fruit, nuts, seeds, pickles, fermented foods, herbs, seasonings, sea vegetables, and teas.

What can I say about this sauce? This Creamy Miso Tahini Sauce is the sauce of all sauces. Full of flavor and creamy goodness, it is simple, quick and easy as it gets. Toss 7 ingredients into the blender or food process and puree till smooth. It stores in the fridge for up to seven days. It is perfect poured over quinoa, steamed Japanese sweet potatoes and avocado.

Sometimes in the middle of the holiday season, in between the egg nog, hot cocoa, Christmas cookies and everything else this season brings, I need something fresh, something bright, something healthy.